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Several research laboratories have found that instructed behavior can be less sensitive to changes in contingencies than shaped behavior. The current experiment examined whether these differences in sensitivity could be related to resistance to change. Two groups of subjects, who were matched on the basis of an initial disruption assessment, were exposed to a variable-interval 30-s schedule of reinforcement with and without a disrupter. The disrupter was a video presentation of a popular television situation comedy. One group received minimal instructions (MI) that told them only that they could earn points exchangeable for money. Each member of the second group received a complete instruction (CI) that described the topography of the target response that was yoked to a MI subject's stable baseline response rate. The response rates under the disruption condition for the CI subjects were more resistant to change than the MI subjects in 14 out of 15 disruption sessions. These findings are discussed in terms of resistance to change being increased by instructional conditions like those manipulated and that the procedures used to test disruption provide an additional method to evaluate differences between instructed and contingency-governed behavior., Rules, instructions, policies, and directions are assumed to influence behavior and are used to teach, inform, or prescribe behavior in many kinds of situations. How rules affect behavior, however, is [...]

This study compared three different methods of teaching five basic algebra rules to college students. All methods used the same procedures to teach the rules and included four 50-question review sessions interspersed among the training of the individual rules. The differences among methods involved the kinds of practice provided during the four review sessions. Participants who received cumulative practice answered 50 questions covering a mix of the rules learned prior to each review session. Participants who received a simple review answered 50 questions on one previously trained rule. Participants who received extra practice answered 50 extra questions on the rule they had just learned. Tests administered after each review included new questions for applying each rule (application items) and problems that required novel combinations of the rules (problem-solving items). On the final test, the cumulative group outscored the other groups on application and problem-solving items. In addition, the cumulative group solved the problem-solving items significantly faster than the other groups. These results suggest that cumulative practice of component skills is an effective method of training problem solving. DESCRIPTORS: cumulative practice, problem solving, application, quantitative skills, algebra

College students were tested to see how their response to to stimulus changed when the baseline of the stimulus was reversed. The study showed that the students quickly assimilated the change.

This study uses speech recognition technology to examine the transfer of conditioned vocal responses to novel stimulus classes. Findings indicate that most subjects require repeated training and testing to achieve a complete transfer of function in vocal behavior.

Significant variations in accuracy across nodal distance and trial type are found in the first test of equivalence when testing the speed of college students' accurate response to 18 conditional relations. While speed differences are significant even after extending the test, response speed is inversely related to the number of nodes. Variations in response speed are found across all trial types, except in transitivity and combined trials. No major variations are noticed when an instructed group, a queried group, and a standard group are tested to study the generality of these comparisons.

Techniques used for teaching college students the use of computer spreadsheet programs are comparatively examined to determine their effectiveness. These techniques include continuous prompting, prompt delay and addition-of-choices. Regression estimates show that students who were trained through the continuous prompting technique committed a lot of errors compared with other students. This method is associated with high computer instruction costs.

Horne and Lowe's account on naming is to be commended for its ability to make the language-development literature more understandable to behavior analysts. They improve experimental analysis of verbal behavior by relating the complex behaviors involved in verbal behavior, stimulus equivalence and rule governance. A major shortcoming of their paper, however, is its emphasis on the role of self-listening in the development of naming and the bidirectional stimulus relations in verbal behavior. Self-listening cannot be experimentally controlled.

The development of an emphasis on applied behavior analysis in the Department of Psychology at West Virginia University is traced. The emphasis began primarily in the early 1970s, under the leadership of Roger Maley and Jon Krapfl, and has continued to expand and evolve with the participation of numerous behavior analysts and behavior therapists, both inside and outside the department. The development has been facilitated by several factors: establishment of a strong behavioral emphasis in the three Clinical graduate programs; change of the graduate program in Experimental Psychology to a program in basic Behavior Analysis; development of nonclinical applied behavior analysis within the Behavior Analysis program; establishment of a joint graduate program with Educational Psychology; establishment of a Community/Systems graduate program; and organization of numerous conferences. Several factors are described that seem to assure a stable role for behavior analysis in the department: a stable and supportive 'culture' within the department; American Psychological Association accreditation of the clinical training; a good reputation both within the university and in psychology; and a broader community of behavior analysts and behavior therapists.

Procedures other than matching-to-sample may be used to establish the conditional discriminations necessary to establish equivalence classes. One procedure, stimulus-stimulus pairing, may have particular relevance in accounts of the stimulus [...]