Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

Project Mk Ultra: A Site Of Forgotten Calamity, Jacoby D Banet

Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase

Project MK Ultra refers to a set of top-secret CIA experiments that took place from 1953 to 1973 and involved unwitting subjects being administered drugs and hypnosis. As there is little information currently existent digitally relating to the project, an archive was established through this essay which relates information regarding the truth of what happened during the experiments without conspiracy theories as are often found in relation to this project. After having done research on the project as a whole and subsequently finding fifteen artifacts that communicate important truths about the project, it can be concluded that the CIA, in …

Impact Of The Csi Effect And Authority Bias On Juror Decisions, Meredith Scruggs

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The recent increase in number of crime drama television shows raises the issue that these fictional portrayals may impact real proceedings in the justice system. This phenomenon has become known as the CSI effect. This includes the concept of authority bias, by which laypeople place higher value on information provided by those that they perceive to be in positions of authority. 289 college students completed a survey comparing their likelihood to match an unknown fingerprint to a suspect’s, after actors portraying evidence technicians either confirm the match or provide no conclusion. Results showed no significant interaction between the confirmation condition …

Prayer As A Potential Buffer Against Ego Depletion, Danielle Oehring

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Ego depletion is theorized as the loss of self-control after it has been exerted over a period of time, leading to loss of conscious regulation of behavior. Buffering against this loss is characterized by engaging in an activity that will help extent the use of self-control, helping to further regulate behaviors such as impulse control. We were interested in learning how prayer may act as a buffer against ego depletion and compared prayer against self-encouraging talk to find is there is a difference between how the two affect self-control. One hundred ten participants were randomly assigned to a video group: …

Negative Punishment During Alternative Reinforcement Does Not Reduce Subsequent Resurgence, Alexander Houchins, Catherine L. Williams, Claire C. St. Peter

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Resurgence of previously suppressed behavior can occur when differential reinforcement is discontinued. Recent research has investigated strategies to mitigate resurgence, such as punishing the target response during alternative reinforcement. Loss of reinforcers contingent on the target response (response cost) does not appear to attenuate resurgence, but these effects had not been replicated with other negative-punishment procedures, such as timeout. This study investigated effects of timeout on subsequent resurgence when adults responded to earn points during a computer task. Timeout did not affect subsequent resurgence. These findings, in combination with previous research, suggest that negative punishment may not reduce the likelihood …

Chimpanzee Early Life Experiences And Responses To Caregiver Use Of Species-Specific Behavior, Emily Patton

All Master's Theses

More than 1,400 chimpanzees live in captivity in the US and each has complex social needs. The humans who care for captive chimpanzees occupy a place within chimpanzee social structures and their actions have consequences on chimpanzee behavior and welfare. Two studies compared chimpanzee responses between a condition in which humans used chimpanzee behaviors (CB) and another in which they use human behaviors (HB) during informal interactions. The chimpanzees showed more affiliative behavior during the CB condition in one study and strong individual variation in responses to the two conditions in both studies. Individual variation in adult primate behavior can …

Serotonin 5-Ht2a And 5-Ht2c Receptors Regulate Rat Maternal Behavior Through Distinct Behavioral And Neural Mechanisms, Jun Gao, Lina Nie, Yu Li, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Serotonin 5-HT_2A and 5-HT_2C receptors play important yet distinctive roles in the regulation of rat maternal behavior. The present study investigated their neural substrates and explored the possible behavioral mechanisms (i.e., behavioral organization or maternal motivation). Sprague-Dawley postpartum females were microinjected with either a selective 5-HT_2A agonist (TCB-2, 0.4 or 4.0 μg/side) or a 5-HT_2C agonist (MK212, 2.5 or 5.0 μg/side) into the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or ventral tegmental area (VTA). Ten and 60 min later, their maternal activities were observed in the home cage; and their motivational responses towards pups were examined in a …

Mechanisms Of Value-Biased Prioritization In Fast Sensorimotor Decision Making, Kivilcim Afacan-Seref

Dissertations and Theses

In dynamic environments, split-second sensorimotor decisions must be prioritized according to potential payoffs to maximize overall rewards. The impact of relative value on deliberative perceptual judgments has been examined extensively, but relatively little is known about value-biasing mechanisms in the common situation where physical evidence is strong but the time to act is severely limited. This research examines the behavioral and electrophysiological indices of how value biases split-second perceptual decisions and the possible mechanisms underlying the process. In prominent decision models, a noisy but statistically stationary representation of sensory evidence is integrated over time to an action-triggering bound, and value-biases …

Alternatives: The Video Game. An Assessment Of Bias And Preferences In Uncertain Situations, Vincent Edwards

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Going against working assumptions of what is "natural", animals have been observed to "gamble" when choosing between a high-risk choice with a high reward, and a consistent alternative with a low reward that feeds them more over time. The Energy Budget Rule (EBR) claims that animals have a foraging goal they must reach to survive, and each attempt to forage has a cost; under certain conditions, a high risk "gamble" is the best option for survival. The present study attempts to observe human choice behavior in a task that tests EBR and assesses shifts in behavior over time as an …

Chlordiazepoxide Increases Risky Choice, Devin Andrew Galdieri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Probability discounting is a measure of risky choice that is correlated with maladaptive behavior and psychological disorders. Benzodiazepines are a class of drug on which relatively little risky-choice research has been conducted, particularly under conditions of chronic drug exposure. Chlordiazepoxide, a standard benzodiazepine, was administered to rats that had been trained to respond on a risky-choice task in which a choice was available between a single food pellet with 100% certainty or three food pellets with probabilities of delivery that decreased across each experimental session. During baseline, responding was sensitive to the programmed contingencies and larger-reinforcer choice decreased as the …

Behavioral Functions Of Stimuli Correlated With Transitions Between Rich And Lean Schedules Of Reinforcement, Cory Whirtley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Disruptions in operant behavior in the form of extended pausing reliably occur when there is a discriminable transition from a relatively rich schedule of reinforcement to a relatively lean schedule (i.e., a rich-lean transition). The present experiments assessed the reinforcing and aversive functions of the stimuli correlated with the transitions between rich and lean schedules using observing and escape procedures. In both experiments, pigeons’ key pecks were reinforced with food on a compound schedule with two FR components. Completing the FR in the rich component produced a large reinforcer; completing the FR in the lean component produced a small reinforcer. …

Laterality Of Eye Use By Bottlenose (Tursiops Truncatus) And Rough-Toothed (Steno Bredanensis) Dolphins While Viewing Predictable And Unpredictable Stimuli, Malin Lilley, Amber J. De Vere, Deirdre Yeater

Psychology Faculty Publications

Laterality of eye use has been increasingly studied in cetaceans. Research supports that many cetacean species keep prey on the right side while feeding and preferentially view unfamiliar objects with the right eye. In contrast, the left eye has been used more by calves while in close proximity to their mothers. Despite some discrepancies across and within species, laterality of eye use generally indicates functional specialization of brain hemispheres in cetaceans. The present study aimed to examine laterality of eye use in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) under managed care. Subjects were video-recorded through an underwater …

Mand Training And Prompt Fading: Teaching Yes-No Manding, Jessica M. Kelly

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Language is a collection of verbal skills which allows the speaker to have some control over how others interact with them. Saying the words “yes” and “no” are fundamental language abilities; The words impact the speaker’s environment by communicating acceptance or rejection of stimuli and experiences. Caregivers, teachers, and friends may have to make choices for an individual who cannot respond to yes-no questions. This skill deficit deprives the individual of autonomy and can lead to challenging behaviors occurring in place of clear communication. Applied Behavior Analysis offers techniques to teach language skills such as saying “yes” and “no” in …

A Daily Diary Study Of Drinking And Nondrinking Days In Nonstudent Alcohol Users, Cathy Lau-Barraco, Ashley N. Linden-Carmichael

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Emerging adults with lower educational attainment are at higher long-term risk for problematic drinking and alcohol use disorders. Efforts to gain a more in-depth understanding of the drinking habits of nonstudent emerging adults are critical to reduce disparities and to shed light on targets of intervention for this vulnerable group.

Objectives: The current investigation aimed to: (1) provide a description of the daily drinking habits of nonstudent emerging adult drinkers using a 14-day diary method, and (2) examine nondrinking days by assessing their reasons for not drinking as well as strategies used to avoid drinking.

Methods: Participants were 27 …

The Midsession Reversal Task With Pigeons: Effects Of A Brief Delay Between Choice And Reinforcement, Megan Ashley Halloran

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

During a midsession reversal task, the session begins with a simple simultaneous discrimination in which one stimulus (S1) is correct and the alternate stimulus (S2) is incorrect (S1+/S2-). At the halfway point, the discrimination reverses and S2 becomes the correct choice (S2+/S1-). When choosing optimally, a pigeon should choose S1 until the first trial in which it is not reinforced and then shift to S2 (win-stay/lose-shift). With this task pigeons have been shown to respond suboptimally by anticipating the reversal (anticipatory errors) and continuing to choose S1 after the reversal (perseverative errors). This suboptimal behavior may result from a pigeon’s …

Gender And Ethnicity: Are They Associated With Differential Outcomes Of A Biopsychosocial Social-Emotional Learning Program?, Ronnie I. Newman, Odikia Yim, David Shaenfield

Psychology Faculty Publications

Context: Social-emotional learning (SEL) program outcomes may be enhanced when programs take into account gender and ethnicity differences, yet few studies directly examine these variables. The limited literature further suggests improved outcomes accrue by integrating physiological techniques, such as yoga and meditation, directly into SEL curricula to reduce stress.

Aims: This study investigated the association between outcomes of a yogic breath-based biopsychosocial SEL intervention across gender and ethnicity.

Methods: Fifty-nine high school students were evaluated on 4 positive (self-esteem, identity formation, anger coping ability, planning, and concentration) and 3 negative SEL outcomes (impulsivity, distractibility, and endorsement of aggression). Using a …

The Effects Of Behavioral Skills Training To Teach Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder How To Respond To Bullying, Carissa Lyn Kazee

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The literature on bullying among school-aged children is widespread, with more than half of children on the autism spectrum having reported experiencing some form of bullying in the last year. For this reason, the primary goal of this study was to introduce a two-week long intervention to teach six middle-school aged children with autism how to recognize and appropriately respond to bullying. The intervention used behavioral skills training that is complimentary to Bandura’s social learning theory. Six middle school-aged participants, one girl and five boys, were taught to recognize bullying situations using comic strip vignettes, and how to respond to …