Digital Commons Network^™

Avoidance And Escape Responses In A Free Operant Avoidance Procedure As A Function Of Avoidance-Shock Intervals, Kathleen M. Krumhus

Masters Theses

Rats were trained on an unsignalled shock procedure, using a two lever apparatus. Responses on one lever postponed the onset of electric shock for a specified time period, the Avoidance-Shock interval. A response on the second lever terminated shock and delayed the onset of the next shock eight seconds, the Escape-Shock interval. Shock was continuous until the subject depressed the second lever. Changes in response rate on both levers were recorded as a function of manipulations of the duration of the Avoidance-Shock interval.

If responses on both bars are summed, data obtained are comparable with findings obtained from the manipulation …

Strength Of Conditioned Reinforcement In Chain Schedules: The Effect Of Altering Minimum Time To Reinforcement, Robert P. Ludlow

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Short Term Retention Of A Positioning Movement Under Three Levels Of Interfering Task Conditions, Mark E. Conklin

Masters Theses

This study is concerned with the short term memory of a simple arm-hand motor response. The response is studied under three task conditions: (1) visual kinesthetic interference (’2 ) kinesthetic interference and (3 ) a rest condition generating no sensory interference. Five movement amplitudes (2, 6 , 12, 18 and 24 cm) and four intervals (0, 20, 40 and 60 seconds) are compared in this study. A total of thirty-six right-handed subjects were used; twelve subjects were tested under each of the three task conditions.

The findings do not support an interference theory of forgetting which has been theorized to …

Stimulus Control And The Effects Of Stimulus Change On Aggression In Children, Marilyn S. Arnett

Masters Theses

Five children has the opportunity at programmed intervals to shock a rat during daily 10 min sessions. An aggression response was defined as producing rat shock and reinforcement was not made contingent on any response within the experimental chamber. Response increment occurred for all subjects upon introduction of a visual cue which signaled shock period onset. A discrimination between shock and no-shock periods developed for all subjects and response increment occurred for all subjects due to a change in the manipulanda. Two subjects who initially preferred shocking the rat, also produced visual feedback when available, although average shock rate was …

A Comparison Of Three Measures Of Stimulation Seeking, John L. Kasten

Masters Theses

An attempt was made to determine the comparability and construct validity of three instruments: the Sensation Seeking Scale (Zuckermsn, Kolin, Price & Zoob, 1964); the Change Seeker Index (Garlington & Shimota, 1964); and the Similes Preference Inventory (Pearson & Maddi, 1966). These instruments, and a measure of drug use which was constructed by the investigator, were administered to 52 college students and 23 high school students. Product-moment correlations were calculated among these instruments and between each instrument and age, sex, marital status and amount of education. Several sets of partial correlations were, also calculated.

A substantial correlation was found between …

Conditioned Punishment Of Self-Injurious Behavior, George Hunt

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Behavioral Contrast In Human Subjects, Joel Steven Ray

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Chlorpromazine On Escape And Avoidance Behavior, Susan E. Bohlmann Lapato

Masters Theses

The present study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of a two lever escape avoidance paradigm as a potential drug evaluation procedure. In this procedure responses on one lever postponed the onset of shock for a fixed period of time while responses on the other lever were effective only in terminating shock. This procedure effectively separates the escape and avoidance behaviors of a single organism and should provide a sensitive baseline upon which to measure the specific effects of drugs upon these two behaviors. The specific and differential effects of three dose levels of chlorpromazine upon escape and avoidance behaviors …

An Analysis Of Polydipsia As Produced By A Multiple Schedule, Joseph J. Vaal

Masters Theses

Polydipsia and contrast effects are two behavioral phenomena produced by manipulations of the reinforcement schedules under which the organisms are behaving. The present study created a complex situation by subjecting rats to a multiple reinforcement schedule. This situation allowed simultaneous examination of both operant and induced drinking behavior. Furthermore, this situation allowed for an examination of possible schedule interactions with respect to the induced and operant drinking behaviors.

It was expected that the results of this study would show that behavioral contrast effects could be obtained in a polydipsic situation. Even though the expected results were not obtained, it is …

Effects Of Relevant And Irrelevant Characteristics Of Leaders In A Communication Network, Janet Ann Scheetz

Student Work

The present study involved groups of four Ss participating in a communication network, problem-solving task. Groups were assigned to one of the two treatments involving an irrelevant leader characteristic, race, and one of two treatments involving a relevant leader characteristic, efficiency. Race was varied by informing some groups that their leader was White while the other groups were informed that their leader was Negro. Efficiency was defined by an efficiency index, which, through a script followed by a confederate leader, produced either a high or low degree of efficiency. Race of the leader had a non significant impact on all …

Effects Of A Series Of Nurse-Patient Interactions On Multiple Sclerosis Patients, Lynne Campbell

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The purpose of the study was to learn whether a series of nurse-patient interactions would result in changed psychophysiologic functioning in multiple sclerosis patients.

Psychophysiologic relationships were described in the theoretical framework. Literature, reviewed in the areas of disease description and psychotherapeutic approaches to treatment, indicated that there is a high incidence of multiple sclerosis in the United States; that symptoms often include psychological alterations; that there is an emotional component to the illness; that these patients have a need for a psychotherapeutic relationship; and that psychotherapeutic approaches may have beneficial psychophysiologic effects.

Two groups of multiple sclerosis subjects were …

Categorization And Discrimination Of Random Forms Following Schema Training, Ronald W. Shaffer

Psychology ETDs

Several investigators have shown that when given a task of categorizing several classes of random patterns, where each class consists of a number of patterns all generated from a common pattern or prototype, Ss learn to abstract a code analogous to or congruent with each class prototype in the process. This learning has been termed schematic abstraction or schema learning. Inferences regarding schematic abstraction have been drawn from the observation of .§s' categorization performance in a transfer task where the prototype is first presented along with both new and previously sorted class patterns. Enhanced performance with class prototypes when compared …

Trusting Behavior In The Prisoner's Dilemma Task Among Appalachians, Helen R. Ankrom

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) game has been popular in recent years as an experimental tool in investigating social situations, particularly conflict situations. The reason for the popularity of the game is due, at least in apart, to the fact that in the PD, as in real life conflict situations, there is no rational solution. The solution depends on interaction between the players.

Contingent Video Consequences For Discrimination Performance Of Retarded Children, Linda Flatter

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Four Ss were selected from the population of residents of Cloverbottom Hospital and School to participate in the present study determining the effectiveness of video presentations as reinforcing consequences for discrimination learning. The task consisted of sorting stimulus discrimination cards on the basis of form and/or color. The S received either "snow" or self-video consequences via a television monitor. Both S-paced sorting and E-paced sorting were employed to determine the effect of each procedure. This study demonstrated that video consequences as well as sorting procedures influenced performance of these Ss. An individual S analysis revealed differential effects across Ss. Results …

Experimentally Induced "Awareness" And Change On Personality Measures Following Verbal Conditioning., Harry C. Linneman

Psychology ETDs

ABSTRACT

Instructions were used to produce differential awareness conditions in a quasi-psychotherapeutic verbal operant conditioning situation. The effects of the awareness variable on the verbal behavior emitted during two conditioning sessions and on change scores on academic anxiety scales were investigated.

Four levels of awareness were used: subjects were informed about the desired response class, the presence of reinforcement, both the presence of reinforcement and the proper response class, or nothing about either the response class or reinforcement. Each subject partici­pated individually in two 2O-minute verbal conditioning sessions on two consecutive days. Reinforcement was made contingent either upon the emission …

Nonstructural Determinants Of Behavior In The Replicated Prisoner’S Dilemma Game, Lawrence A. Messé, Martin Bolt, Jack Sawyer

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

The present research examined three factors that were thought to affect cooperation in the replicated prisoner’s dilemma game: (1) motivation for participating, (2) understanding of the game, and (3) reward level. Results indicated that both high-understanding instructions and recruiting Ss to participate for money (rather than research credit) promoted cooperation, while reward level had no significant effect. These findings were used to argue that past studies, which tended to show low levels of cooperation for less than 50 replications, generated results that do not validly model real-life conflict.

Solitary Protest, Mary Jones

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

"Alienation, estrangement, disaffection, anomie, withdrawal, disengagement, separation, noninvolvement, apathy, indifference, and neutralism--all of these terms point to a sense of loss, a growing gap between men and their social world." but these terms, which Kenneth Keniston disparages as the current vocabulary of social commentary, are indeed a familiar description of today. The youth on college campuses are especially fluent in the use of the many synonyms of alienations to depict prevalent college attitudes and social values. Even the term "generation gap" seems to cry of separation, estrangement, and alienation between two factions of our society-- young and old. what is …

Stimulus Selection Under Conditions Of Free Choice By Preschool Children At Baseline And After Adaptation, Andrea Lyn Shields

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The experiments reported in the present paper may be characterized as belonging to the general area of motivation research referred to as stimulus selection behavior. Stimulus selection behavior includes curiosity, exploratory, and manipulatory activities. Generally, the research in the area attempts to determine the relation between changes in the stimulus and changes in the measures of approach behavior in the subject (s). In this research, approach behavior is apparently unrelated to organic need conditions. The experiments presented in this paper were designed to determine a preschool child's stimulus preference as he entered the experimental setting, and whether that preference could …

Behavioral Styles Of Computer Programmers - Revisited, Edward M. Cross

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper describes the second phase of a continuing research project concerned with the attributes associated with membership and success in the computer programming occupation.   The second phase of this research has differed some-what, both in intent and practice, from the first phase. First, the initial purpose of the study was to test an approach to job analysis which included the application of the principal instrument used in the study, the JAIM, or Job Analysis and Interest Measurement.1 The use of computer programmers as the subject group was the result of the investigator's previous career as a systems analyst and …

Operant Training Of Originality In Hospitalized Adult Mental Patients, David Dennis Holt

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The thesis is a report of a pilot study in the general research area of behavioral originality. In the study operant techniques were used to train originality in hospitalized mentally ill or mentally retarded subjects (Ss). Originality of behavior was defined in terms of the observable behavior of the Ss in the research setting. Original responses were defined as verbal responses different from recorded baseline verbalizations for one subject (S) and motor responses different from previously observed motor responses for each of three Ss.

The Loyola Sentence Completion Blank For Clergymen: Construction And Validation, Mary Sheehan

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Sex Differences In Suicide And Attempted Suicide: A Study Of Differential Social Acceptability And Expectations, Marsha Linehan

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Vicarious Reinforcement On An Observer's Speed Of Conflict Resolution, Nola R. Powell

Master's Theses

Conflict, expressed parsimoniously yet meaningfully, result from "competition between incompatible responses" (miller 1944). Conflict identified in this manner must be distinguished from a psychoanalytic definition invoking internal dynamic states and forces as explanatory concepts. In the interest of working with behaviors that are more readily observable and measurable, this paper will focus on conflict as defined in the first sense.

Lewin (1931), in particular, was instrumental in launching a concept of conflict based psychological field forces. Field forces, which were considered to be acquired, were said to have valences which had a point of application, strength, and direction. Valences could …

Proactive Transfer And Acoustic Similarity In Short-Term Paired-Assoicate Learning, Richard James Pittman

Master's Theses

Interference is the most prominent explanation of forgetting in verbal long-term memory (LTM). Interference theory generally holds that forgetting is due to the competition of associations learned during the retention interval rather than to the decay of memory traces. Proactive interference results when the competing associations are learned prior to the criterion associations, and retroactive interference results when the competing associations are learned after the criterion associations. Further explanation of retroactive inhibition (RI) and proactive inhibition (PI) in paired-associate (P-A) learning is found in the extinction hypothesis of interference theory. According to the hypothesis, interference is due to unlearning or …

Effect Of Preloading On Learned Food Aversions Due To Delayed Lithium Chloride Sickness, Richard L. Ferrise

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

It is a well established principle that reinforcement must quickly follow a response for learning to occur. The detrimental effects on learning of delays in reinforcement of 1-10 seconds have been repeatedly demonstrated during the past fifty years (Renner, 1964). When secondary reinforcement and mediating cues are eliminated, the delay of reinforcement gradient indicates little learning after delays of five seconds. Delay of punishment gradients parallel those obtained with positive reinforcement.

Dramatism And Development, Kenneth Burke

Heinz Werner Lectures

"This is the sixth of The Heinz Weiner Lecture Series. This series is designed to provide a forum for outstanding scholars who are known for their contributions to the developmental analysis of biological, psychological and/or socio-cultural phenomena."

The Use Of Selected Films And Film Discussions In Modifying Social Distance In Elementary School Children, Stanton C. Baker

All Master's Theses

When conflicts involving interpersonal relationships arise within the school setting, it would appear appropriate to attempt to cope with these conflicts within the framework of the school; particularly the classroom. Many methods of modifying behavior through group procedures have been attempted with varying degrees of success. It was the purpose of this study to investigate the effectiveness of one such method; a fiIm-discussion technique. This program was developed to modify behaviors, attitudes and/or perceptions which interfere with the development of constructive interpersonal relationships within an elementary classroom.

Modification Of Deviant Behavior By Parents, Jeanne M. Gabourie

All Master's Theses

It is the purpose of this study (1) to determine if a child's deviant social behaviors can be effectively modified by his own parents; and (2) to determine if parents can be trained to use behavior modification techniques in the home.

The Effects Of Repetitive Stimulation On The Aggressive Behavior Of The Fighting Cock: A Test For Habituation, Howard E. Farris, Thomas W. Cey

Honors Theses

A fighting cock was repeatedly presented with its own mirror image. The rate of aggressive display and attack behavior elicited by the mirror rapidly decreased to zero. Subsequent exposure of the experimental subject to a live target bird was found to be sufficient to reinstate responding to the mirror. However, upon repeated exposure to the mirror image alone aggressive responding quickly decreased again to zero.

A Correlation Between Self-Actualization And Communications Behavior, Joseph Whitney Alexander

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The planned, intensive group experience is the most rapidly spreading social invention of the century and, in the opinion of Carl Rogers, may be the most potent one. He recognizes such groups under varied labels such as T-groups, encounter groups, sensitivity training groups, and also as laboratories in human relations or as workshops in leadership, education, or counseling. Because of the emphasis on the fullest development of human potentials in most of these groups the theories and activities connected with them have come to be known as the Human Potential Movement.

The primary purpose of this investigation is to determine …