The Experts below are selected from a list of 2094 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Timothy A. Shahan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
Behavioral Momentum and resistance to extinction across repeated extinction tests.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2019Co-Authors: Andrew R Craig, Mary M Sweeney, Timothy A. ShahanAbstract:The present experiments assessed whether resistance to extinction of pigeons' key pecking decreased across repeated extinction tests. An additional impetus for this research was to determine how the quantitative framework provided by Behavioral Momentum theory might be used to describe any such changes across tests. Pigeons pecked keys in two-component multiple schedules (one component associated with a higher reinforcer rate and the other with a lower rate) in which baseline and extinction conditions alternated. In Experiment 1, baseline and extinction conditions alternated every session, and, in Experiment 2, these conditions lasted for 10 and 7 sessions, respectively. Resistance to extinction decreased across successive extinction conditions in both experiments. Fits of the Behavioral-Momentum based model of extinction to the data returned uncertain results in Experiment 1 but implicated both generalization decrement and response-reinforcer contingency termination as the possible mechanisms responsible for behavior change in Experiment 2. Thus, these data suggest that experimental manipulations that affect discrimination of changes in reinforcement contingencies may influence resistance to extinction by modulating the disruptive impacts of removing reinforcers from the experimental context and of suspending response-reinforcer contingencies.
-
Quantitative models of persistence and relapse from the perspective of Behavioral Momentum theory: Fits and misfits☆
Behavioural processes, 2017Co-Authors: John A Nevin, Timothy A. Shahan, Christopher A. Podlesnik, Andrew R Craig, Paul J. Cunningham, Mary M SweeneyAbstract:We review quantitative accounts of Behavioral Momentum theory (BMT), its application to clinical treatment, and its extension to post-intervention relapse of target behavior. We suggest that its extension can account for relapse using reinstatement and renewal models, but that its application to resurgence is flawed both conceptually and in its failure to account for recent data. We propose that the enhanced persistence of target behavior engendered by alternative reinforcers is limited to their concurrent availability within a distinctive stimulus context. However, a failure to find effects of stimulus-correlated reinforcer rates in a Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm challenges even a straightforward Pavlovian account of alternative reinforcer effects. BMT has been valuable in understanding basic research findings and in guiding clinical applications and accounting for their data, but alternatives are needed that can account more effectively for resurgence while encompassing basic data on resistance to change as well as other forms of relapse.
-
Behavioral Momentum theory fails to account for the effects of reinforcement rate on resurgence
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2016Co-Authors: Andrew R Craig, Timothy A. ShahanAbstract:The Behavioral-Momentum model of resurgence predicts reinforcer rates within a resurgence preparation should have three effects on target behavior. First, higher reinforcer rates in baseline (Phase 1) produce more persistent target behavior during extinction plus alternative reinforcement. Second, higher rate alternative reinforcement during Phase 2 generates greater disruption of target responding during extinction. Finally, higher rates of either reinforcement source should produce greater responding when alternative reinforcement is suspended in Phase 3. Recent empirical reports have produced mixed results in terms of these predictions. Thus, the present experiment further examined reinforcer-rate effects on persistence and resurgence. Rats pressed target levers for high-rate or low-rate variable-interval food during Phase 1. In Phase 2, target-lever pressing was extinguished, an alternative nose-poke became available, and nose-poking produced either high-rate variable-interval, low-rate variable-interval, or no (an extinction control) alternative reinforcement. Alternative reinforcement was suspended in Phase 3. For groups that received no alternative reinforcement, target-lever pressing was less persistent following high-rate than low-rate Phase-1 reinforcement. Target behavior was more persistent with low-rate alternative reinforcement than with high-rate alternative reinforcement or extinction alone. Finally, no differences in Phase-3 responding were observed for groups that received either high-rate or low-rate alternative reinforcement, and resurgence occurred only following high-rate alternative reinforcement. These findings are inconsistent with the Momentum-based model of resurgence. We conclude this model mischaracterizes the effects of rein-forcer rates on persistence and resurgence of operant behavior.
-
Behavioral Momentum and accumulation of mass in multiple schedules.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2015Co-Authors: Andrew R Craig, Paul J. Cunningham, Timothy A. ShahanAbstract:Behavioral Momentum theory suggests that the relation between a discriminative-stimulus situation and reinforcers obtained in that context (i.e., the Pavlovian stimulus–reinforcer relation) governs persistence of operant behavior. Within the theory, a mass-like aspect of behavior has been shown to be a power function of predisruption reinforcement rates. Previous investigations of resistance to change in multiple schedules, however, have been restricted to examining response persistence following protracted periods of stability in reinforcer rates within a discriminative situation. Thus, it is unclear how long a stimulus–reinforcer relation must be in effect prior to disruption in order to affect resistance to change. The present experiment examined resistance to change of pigeon’s key pecking following baseline conditions where reinforcer rates that were correlated with discriminative-stimulus situations changed. Across conditions, one multiple-schedule component arranged either relatively higher rates or lower rates of variable-interval food delivery, while the other component arranged the opposite rate. These schedules alternated between multiple-schedule components across blocks of sessions such that reinforcer rates in the components were held constant for 20, 5, 3, 2, or 1 session(s) between alternations. Resistance to extinction was higher in the component that most recently was associated with higher rates of food delivery in all conditions except when schedules alternated daily or every other day. These data suggest that resistance to change in multiple schedules is related to recently experienced reinforcer rates but only when multiple-schedule components are associated with specific reinforcer rates for several sessions.
-
The impact of D-amphetamine and SCH23390 on Behavioral Momentum of food seeking and reinstatement in rats.
Behavioural pharmacology, 2015Co-Authors: Stacey L Quick, Timothy A. ShahanAbstract:Although the environmental determinants of context-specific Behavioral persistence have been extensively studied within Behavioral Momentum theory, little is known about the neurobiological determinants. The present experiment assessed the impact of indirect dopamine agonism with D-amphetamine or dopamine D1 receptor antagonism with SCH23390 on context-specific persistence of behavior. Two groups of rats were trained to make operant responses for equal rates of food delivery in two alternating contexts arranged across sessions. Following baseline, rats received either drug (D-amphetamine or SCH23390) or saline injections before each context. Resistance to extinction and reinstatement in each context were subsequently tested in the absence of drug. Previous exposure to D-amphetamine increased resistance to extinction and reinstatement of behavior, whereas SCH23390 had little impact on resistance to extinction and enhanced reinstatement in the saline context. Quantitative analyses based on Behavioral Momentum theory suggested that previous treatment with D-amphetamine within a stimulus context may have resulted in a shift to more habitual stimulus-driven behavior that was impacted less by reinforcer omission during subsequent extinction. These results suggest that the persistence of behavior is greater in a context associated with dopamine receptor agonism and that the activity at D1 receptors may differentially modulate extinction and reinstatement performance. These findings may serve as a starting point for future examination and integration of the biological and environmental determinants of Behavioral persistence within the framework of Behavioral Momentum theory.
John A Nevin - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
The basis of Behavioral Momentum in the nonlinearity of strength.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2018Co-Authors: Peter R. Killeen, John A NevinAbstract:The persistence of operant responding in the context of distractors and opposing forces is of central importance to the success of Behavioral interventions. It has been successfully analyzed with Behavioral Momentum Theory. Key data from the research inspired by that theory are reanalyzed in terms of more molecular Behavioral mechanisms: the demotivational effects of disruptors, and their differential impacts on the target response and other responses that interact with them. Behavioral Momentum is regrounded as a nonlinear effect of motivation and reinforcement rate on response probability and persistence. When response probabilities are high, more energy is required to further increase or to decrease them than when they are low. Classic Behavioral Momentum Theory effects are reproduced with this account. Finally, it is shown how the new account involving motivation and competition is closely related to the metaphor of force and action that is at the core of Behavioral Momentum Theory.
-
Quantitative models of persistence and relapse from the perspective of Behavioral Momentum theory: Fits and misfits☆
Behavioural processes, 2017Co-Authors: John A Nevin, Timothy A. Shahan, Christopher A. Podlesnik, Andrew R Craig, Paul J. Cunningham, Mary M SweeneyAbstract:We review quantitative accounts of Behavioral Momentum theory (BMT), its application to clinical treatment, and its extension to post-intervention relapse of target behavior. We suggest that its extension can account for relapse using reinstatement and renewal models, but that its application to resurgence is flawed both conceptually and in its failure to account for recent data. We propose that the enhanced persistence of target behavior engendered by alternative reinforcers is limited to their concurrent availability within a distinctive stimulus context. However, a failure to find effects of stimulus-correlated reinforcer rates in a Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm challenges even a straightforward Pavlovian account of alternative reinforcer effects. BMT has been valuable in understanding basic research findings and in guiding clinical applications and accounting for their data, but alternatives are needed that can account more effectively for resurgence while encompassing basic data on resistance to change as well as other forms of relapse.
-
Maintenance, Generalization, and Treatment Relapse: A Behavioral Momentum Analysis
Education and Treatment of Children, 2017Co-Authors: F. Charles Mace, John A NevinAbstract:Maintenance and generalization have been inconsistently defined in the behavior analytic literature. The term treatment relapse is used commonly in the medical and mental health literature to refer to the return of a condition that was previously considered successfully treated. Basic Behavioral researchers have studied relapse related to Behavioral Momentum theory (BMT). The present authors discuss the differences in terminology and propose the field adopt the term treatment relapse when treatments are no longer effective or when their effects are not present in settings in which the treatment was not originally implemented. The implications BMT has for designing Behavioral interventions to minimize or avoid treatment relapse are discussed along with a brief review of applied studies that demonstrate BMT may be useful for practitioners and applied researchers.
-
Resistance to extinction and Behavioral Momentum.
Behavioural Processes, 2012Co-Authors: John A NevinAbstract:In the metaphor of Behavioral Momentum, reinforcement is assumed to strengthen discriminated operant behavior in the sense of increasing its resistance to disruption, and extinction is viewed as disruption by contingency termination and reinforcer omission. In multiple schedules of intermittent reinforcement, resistance to extinction is an increasing function of reinforcer rate, consistent with a model based on the Momentum metaphor. The partial-reinforcement extinction effect, which opposes the effects of reinforcer rate, can be explained by the large disruptive effect of terminating continuous reinforcement despite its strengthening effect during training. Inclusion of a term for the context of reinforcement during training allows the model to account for a wide range of multiple-schedule extinction data and makes contact with other formulations. The relation between resistance to extinction and reinforcer rate on single schedules of intermittent reinforcement is exactly opposite to that for multiple schedules over the same range of reinforcer rates; however, the Momentum model can give an account of resistance to extinction in single as well as multiple schedules. An alternative analysis based on the number of reinforcers omitted to an extinction criterion supports the conclusion that response strength is an increasing function of reinforcer rate during training.
-
contingencies of reinforcement and Behavioral Momentum research and applications
Revista mexicana de análisis de la conducta = Mexican journal of behavior analysis, 2011Co-Authors: John A NevinAbstract:A discriminative operant is defined by the combination of an antecedent stimulus, a response, and a reinforcer. The response-reinforcer contingency determines the rate of the response, and the stimulus-reinforcer contingency determined the resistance to change of that response rate. The product of response rate and its resistance to change is characterized metaphorically as Behavioral Momentum. This article describes sorne basic research on the determiners of Momentum and discusses some applications of Momentum analyses in clinical and educational settings. Some more speculative applications to business and industry, international war, and problems of sustainable development are also considered.
Phillip J. Belfiore - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
a Behavioral Momentum approach is effective for prompting acquisition and fluency outcomes of tacting in children with autism spectrum disorder
Evidence-based Communication Assessment and Intervention, 2015Co-Authors: Karen Rizzo, Phillip J. BelfioreAbstract:Kelly, L., & Holloway, J. (2015). An investigation of the effectiveness of Behavioral Momentum on the acquisition and fluency outcomes of tacts in three children with autism spectrum disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 9, 182–192.Source of funding and declaration of interests: None reported.
-
Using a High Probability Command Sequence to Increase Classroom Compliance: The Role of Behavioral Momentum
Journal of Behavioral Education, 2008Co-Authors: Phillip J. Belfiore, Sarah Pulley BasileAbstract:One of the most problematic behaviors in children with developmental disabilities is noncompliance. Although Behavioral research has provided strategies to impact noncompliance, oftentimes the methodologies are consequent techniques, which may not be conducive to implementation by the classroom teacher. In this teacher-designed and implemented study, a sequence of high-probability instructional commands preceded the targeted low-probability command, in an attempt to increase compliance to the low-probability command. Results, discussed within the body of Behavioral Momentum research, showed an increase in compliance to low-probability classroom commands for a seven year-old student with moderate mental retardation and Down Syndrome. Results are discussed as (a) an effective, antecedent approach to classroom compliance and (b) re-connecting the gap between applied Behavioral research and experimentally controlled classroom practice.
-
Using Pre and Post Low-p Latency to Assess Behavioral Momentum: A Preliminary Investigation
Journal of Behavioral Education, 2006Co-Authors: David L Lee, Phillip J. Belfiore, Youjia Hua, Doreen Ferko, Mandy Carranza, Katie HildebrandAbstract:Delivering high-probability (high- p ) request sequences is an effective method to increase compliance across settings. To date, researchers have used frequency of compliance and latency to initiate low-probability (low- p ) requests to document these effects. Both measures focus on events just prior to and during the low- p task. In these two studies we examined a third possible example of high- p effects, time from the end of a low- p task to the initiation of subsequent high- p tasks, across both traditional high- p and high- p with added incentives conditions. Overall, we found that the latency from high- p to low- p tasks was shorter than the latency from low- p to subsequent high- p tasks, indicating a Momentum effect across four children (two with academic difficulties and two without). The results are explained in terms of Behavioral Momentum and local reinforcement rates.
-
Behavioral Momentum in academics using embedded high p sequences to increase academic productivity
Psychology in the Schools, 2004Co-Authors: David L Lee, Phillip J. Belfiore, Mary Catherine Scheeler, Youjia Hua, Rachel A SmithAbstract:The use of high-probability (high-p) request sequences has enjoyed support in the applied Behavioral literature as a method to increase compliance. Based on the theory of Behavioral Momentum, high-probability sequences increase the rate of responding, and subsequent rate of reinforcement, within a response class. This increase in density of reinforcement results in increased responding for the response class as a whole. Early research in this area had focused mainly on compliance issues for individuals with developmental disabilities. However, more recently the utility of high-p sequences has been examined within the context of academics. The purpose of these two experiments was to examine the use of high-p sequences with two academic tasks—letter-writing and mathematics problem completion. The results of these studies suggest that high-p sequences can be used to increase academic productivity. Moreover, the addition of experimenter-delivered reinforcers to existing high-p sequences enhances overall Behavioral persistence. Theoretical and applied implications of persistence and Behavioral Momentum are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 789–801, 2004.
-
Behavioral Momentum in academics: Using embedded high‐p sequences to increase academic productivity
Psychology in the Schools, 2004Co-Authors: David L Lee, Phillip J. Belfiore, Mary Catherine Scheeler, Youjia Hua, Rachel A SmithAbstract:The use of high-probability (high-p) request sequences has enjoyed support in the applied Behavioral literature as a method to increase compliance. Based on the theory of Behavioral Momentum, high-probability sequences increase the rate of responding, and subsequent rate of reinforcement, within a response class. This increase in density of reinforcement results in increased responding for the response class as a whole. Early research in this area had focused mainly on compliance issues for individuals with developmental disabilities. However, more recently the utility of high-p sequences has been examined within the context of academics. The purpose of these two experiments was to examine the use of high-p sequences with two academic tasks—letter-writing and mathematics problem completion. The results of these studies suggest that high-p sequences can be used to increase academic productivity. Moreover, the addition of experimenter-delivered reinforcers to existing high-p sequences enhances overall Behavioral persistence. Theoretical and applied implications of persistence and Behavioral Momentum are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 789–801, 2004.
Christopher A. Podlesnik - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
Quantitative models of persistence and relapse from the perspective of Behavioral Momentum theory: Fits and misfits☆
Behavioural processes, 2017Co-Authors: John A Nevin, Timothy A. Shahan, Christopher A. Podlesnik, Andrew R Craig, Paul J. Cunningham, Mary M SweeneyAbstract:We review quantitative accounts of Behavioral Momentum theory (BMT), its application to clinical treatment, and its extension to post-intervention relapse of target behavior. We suggest that its extension can account for relapse using reinstatement and renewal models, but that its application to resurgence is flawed both conceptually and in its failure to account for recent data. We propose that the enhanced persistence of target behavior engendered by alternative reinforcers is limited to their concurrent availability within a distinctive stimulus context. However, a failure to find effects of stimulus-correlated reinforcer rates in a Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm challenges even a straightforward Pavlovian account of alternative reinforcer effects. BMT has been valuable in understanding basic research findings and in guiding clinical applications and accounting for their data, but alternatives are needed that can account more effectively for resurgence while encompassing basic data on resistance to change as well as other forms of relapse.
-
Contrafreeloading, reinforcement rate, and Behavioral Momentum.
Behavioural processes, 2016Co-Authors: Christopher A. Podlesnik, Corina Jimenez-gomezAbstract:Contrafreeloading involves organisms working for food when an identical source of food is freely available. The present study assessed whether training reinforcement rates influenced contrafreeloading by arranging a within-subject and within-session design using pigeons. Across different alternating discriminative stimuli, variable-interval schedules arranged leaner (30 per hour) and richer (120 per hour) rates of food reinforcement. Responding decreased but persisted in the presence of free food during the session (i.e., contrafreeloading). Further, responding tended to be similar between components initially but greater persistence emerged in the richer component with additional exposure. With pre-session feeding, responding did not change systematically across test sessions and tended to be more persistent in the richer component. Greater persistence with greater training reinforcement rates is generally consistent with an influential theory of response persistence, Behavioral Momentum theory. However, the different patterns of responding across test sessions between pre- and within-session feeding reveals multiple Behavioral processes involved in contrafreeloading that have yet to be fully understood. Behavioral Momentum theory could provide a useful theoretical framework for understanding and quantifying the Behavioral processes underlying contrafreeloading.
-
Behavioral Momentum Theory: Understanding Persistence and Improving Treatment
Autism Service Delivery, 2015Co-Authors: Christopher A. Podlesnik, Iser G. DeleonAbstract:Behavioral Momentum theory is a quantitative framework asserting that reinforcers obtained in the presence of a discriminative-stimulus context govern the persistence of behavior, as defined as resistance to disruption and relapse. An important implication of the theory is that Behavioral treatments that decrease problem behavior by arranging alternative sources of reinforcement within the same stimulus context can inadvertently increase the persistence of problem behavior. This chapter describes Behavioral Momentum theory at a conceptual level and presents an empirical body of basic and applied research supporting its assertions. In addition, we evaluate a novel solution for treating problem behavior based on Behavioral Momentum theory. Specifically, training a desirable alternative behavior in a separate context before combining with the problem-behavior context results in less persistent problem behavior than training the alternative and problem behavior together. Although this novel approach provides an initially promising alternative to traditional treatments, we provide evidence that more research is needed to understand its potential impact on problem behavior. We argue that a translational program combining the expertise of basic and applied researchers will be more effective for developing and establishing best practices for this or any Behavioral treatment for problem behavior.
-
Implications of Behavioral Momentum Theory for Intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism Service Delivery, 2015Co-Authors: Iser G. Deleon, Christopher A. Podlesnik, Jonathan R. MillerAbstract:Behavioral Momentum theory (BMT) is a quantitative model used to describe the persistence of behavior in the face of varying challenges (e.g., extinction, distraction). Generally, BMT predicts that responses that occur under stimulus conditions associated with denser reinforcement will persist in the face of challenges to a greater extent than responses that occur under conditions associated with leaner reinforcement. In this chapter, we consider ways in which BMT has made contact with the literature on Behavioral intervention for persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders. We first review early studies that sought simply to establish the relevance of BMT for understanding behavior in these populations. We then discuss how the Momentum framework has been implicated in programs to both strengthen adaptive behavior and decrease problem behavior. Recent basic research on BMT has revealed that the set of variables that predict response persistence similarly influence various forms of Behavioral reemergence or relapse. We consider how these findings have recently been brought to bear on the concept of treatment relapse in neurodevelopmental disorders. Throughout the chapter, we offer a variety of questions raised about these relations and future avenues for research on the applied implications, many involving how BMT intersects with core diagnostic features of ASD.
-
Method of stimulus combination impacts resistance to extinction.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2015Co-Authors: Christopher A. Podlesnik, John Y. H. BaiAbstract:Reinforcing an alternative response in the presence of the stimuli governing a target response increases resistance to extinction of target responding, relative to training target responding on its own. Conversely, training alternative and target responses in the presence of different stimuli and combining those stimuli only decreases resistance to extinction of target responding, relative to target responding on its own. The present study assessed how different methods of combining discriminative stimuli influence resistance to extinction of responding in pigeons. As in previous studies, combining stimuli across different keys only decreased resistance to extinction of target responding relative to target responding on its own. In comparison, combining stimuli on the same key initially increased resistance to extinction of target responding, but repeated tests resulted in similar levels of responding as target responding with stimuli combined on separate keys. Moreover, greater overall reinforcement rates produced greater resistance to extinction with both methods of combining stimuli, consistent with Behavioral Momentum theory. These findings reveal several Behavioral processes influence the outcome of combining stimuli--including perceptual processes, discriminative control by contingencies, response competition, and Behavioral Momentum.
William V Dube - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
Contextual influences on resistance to disruption in children with intellectual disabilities.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2011Co-Authors: Karen M. Lionello-denolf, William V DubeAbstract:Training context can influence resistance to disruption under differing reinforcement schedules. With nonhumans, when relatively lean and rich reinforcement schedules are experienced in the context of a multiple schedule, greater resistance is found in the rich than the lean component, as described by Behavioral Momentum theory. By contrast, when the schedules are experienced in separated blocks of sessions (i.e., as single schedules), resistance is not consistently greater in either component. In the current study, two groups of 6 children with intellectual disabilities responded to stimuli presented in relatively lean or rich components. For both, reinforcers were delivered according to the same variable-interval reinforcement schedule; additionally, the rich component included the delivery of response-independent reinforcers. The Within group was trained on a multiple schedule in which lean and rich components alternated regularly within sessions; the Blocked group was trained on two single schedules in which sessions with either the lean or rich schedule were conducted in successive blocks. Disruption tests presented a concurrently available alternative stimulus disrupter signaling the availability of tangible reinforcers. All 6 Within participants showed greater resistance to disruption in the rich component, consistent with Behavioral Momentum theory. By contrast, there was no consistent or significant difference in resistance for Blocked participants. This finding is potentially relevant to the development of interventions in applied settings, where such interventions often approximate single schedules and include response-independent reinforcers.
-
Evaluation of Resistance to Change under Different Disrupter Conditions in Children with Autism and Severe Intellectual Disability.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2010Co-Authors: Karen M. Lionello-denolf, William V Dube, William J McilvaneAbstract:Translational research inspired by Behavioral Momentum theory in the area of developmental disabilities has shown effects in individuals over a range of functioning levels. In the current study, Behavioral Momentum was assessed in 6 children diagnosed with autism and severe intellectual disability. In a repeated measures design, participants were exposed to relatively rich versus lean reinforcement contingencies in a multiple schedule with food reinforcers. This was followed by exposure to each of four disrupting conditions: prefeeding, presentation of a concurrent alternative stimulus, presentation of a movie, and the presence of a researcher dispensing response-independent reinforcers on a variable-time schedule. Consistently greater resistance to disruption in the component with the richer schedule occurred with the alternative stimulus disrupter but not with the other disrupters. These results suggest parameters that may be more (or less) effective if Behavioral Momentum inspired techniques are to be exploited in therapeutic environments.
-
Behavioral Momentum: Translational Research in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
The behavior analyst today, 2009Co-Authors: William V Dube, William H. Ahearn, Karen M. Lionello-denolf, William J McilvaneAbstract:During Nancy Neef's tenure as editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, there was an increasing trend in the number of articles in that journal that sought to establish a connection between basic and applied research (Wacker, 1996). Wacker (1996) explicitly pointed out the “need for studies that bridge basic and applied research,” the trend continued during his term as JABA's editor, and one began to hear the term “bridge study” with increasing frequency among behavior analysts. Now, over 12 years later, the importance of translational research is almost universally acknowledged within our field (e.g., McIlvane et al., in press). Such research – occupying a conceptual midpoint between basic research and applied research – has become a priority at the highest levels of science and medicine, for example, as seen in the establishment of the National Institutes of Health new Clinical and Translational Science Award (e.g., Morrison, 2008). The Behavior Analyst Today (BAT) was “founded as a newsletter for master level practitioners … [and] has evolved to being a primary form of communication between researchers and practitioners, as well as a primary form of communication for those outside behavior analysis” (BAT, 2004). For this reason, the intended audience for this paper is the practitioner interested in learning about the current status of translational research in Behavioral Momentum as a foundation for considering ways in which Behavioral Momentum theory may – or may not – be relevant to clinical issues. This paper will provide a selective review of that translational research, with an emphasis on human populations with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). We will describe some of the ways in which Momentum theory, arising in the basic research laboratory with nonhuman animals, has been shown to be applicable to the behavior of humans with IDD. Nevin's Behavioral Momentum theory (Nevin, 1992, Nevin & Grace, 2000) makes an analogy between the relationships described in the physics of motion and the measurement of response strength. In classical mechanics, the Momentum of a moving body is defined as the product of its velocity and mass. Nevin (1992) suggested a parallel in behavior. Rate of responding is analogous to velocity, and resistance to change analogous to mass. Resistance to change refers to the persistence of behavior in the face of some perturbing force or operation (e.g., distraction), and this Behavioral analogue of mass is positively related to the overall level of reinforcement signaled by the stimuli that define the context in which the behavior occurs. Consider a basketball and a bowling ball rolling down an inclined plane at equal speeds. Although velocities are equal, the force necessary to decelerate the bowling ball will be greater because of its greater mass; the bowling ball is more resistant to change. Now consider two operant responses, controlled by different discriminative stimuli A and B, but occurring at the same rate (velocity). According to Behavioral Momentum theory, if the historical level of reinforcement for the response controlled by stimulus A is greater than that for the response controlled by stimulus B, then response A will be more resistant to change than response B.
-
Reinforcer Rate Effects and Behavioral Momentum in Individuals With Developmental Disabilities
American journal of mental retardation : AJMR, 2003Co-Authors: William V Dube, William J Mcilvane, Kim Mazzitelli, Bethany McnamaraAbstract:Behavioral Momentum theory states that Behavioral resistance to change is positively related to reinforcer rate and independent of response rate under most circumstances. We examined Behavioral Momentum in humans with developmental disabilities. The experimental procedures were implemented as a computer game. Different rates of positive reinforcement were programmed in two alternating components signaled by distinctive cues. For 10 participants who successfully completed testing, resistance to disruption by an alternate source of reinforcement was greater in the component with the higher reinforcer rate, although the magnitude of the difference varied among individuals. These results confirm reinforcer rate effects consistent with Behavioral Momentum under laboratory conditions and with the largest number of human beings with developmental disabilities studied to date.
-
Reinforcer Rate and Stimulus Control in Discrimination Reversal Learning
The Psychological Record, 2002Co-Authors: William V Dube, William J McilvaneAbstract:Nine subjects with mental retardation were trained with a fading procedure to perform two-choice simple-discrimination tasks. Immediately after meeting a learning criterion, discrimination reversals were trained within the same sessions, also with the fading procedure. Two 10- or 16-reversal conditions were compared within subjects: High, in which all correct responses for the initial discrimination were followed by reinforcers, and Low, in which the initial discrimination was trained with an intermittent reinforcement schedule and a lower obtained reinforcer rate. In both conditions, reinforcers followed all correct responses during reversal training. Reversal learning error rates were higher in the High condition for 8 subjects. Thus, the rate of reinforcement during the initial discrimination training was related to the persistence of stimulus control, as shown by more selections of the initially positive stimulus during reversal training in the High condition. The results are consistent with Behavioral Momentum theory. The results indicate that (a) Behavioral Momentum may describe stimulus control in discrete-trial procedures, and (b) teaching procedures may sometimes benefit from tactical reductions in local reinforcement density to encourage changes or transfers of stimulus control.