Reinforced Variability and Operant Behavior

增强的可变性和操作行为

• 批准号: 7019190
• 负责人: ALLEN J NEURINGER
• 金额: $ 18.15万
• 依托单位: REED COLLEGE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-06-01 至 2008-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7019190
• 关键词: adolescence (12-20); age difference; attention deficit disorder; autism; clinical research; creativity; cues; depression; discrimination learning; ethology; human subject; laboratory rat; mental health epidemiology; negative reinforcements; operant conditionings; pigeons; problem solving; psychopathology; reinforcer; stimulus /response; young adult human (21-34)

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Behavioral variability plays an important role in operant learning, problem solving, and creativity. Abnormal levels of variability are characteristic of some psychopathologies, with high levels seen in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and low levels in depression and autism. Much research has been devoted to identifying sources of variability and ways in which it is controlled. This grant studies a potentially important source, one that has received relatively little attention in the past, namely reinforcers that are directly contingent upon variability itself. The working hypothesis is that individuals learn how, what, when and where to vary. Such learning is controlled by reinforcing consequences and discriminative stimuli: in some situations, it is adaptive to behave unpredictably or do novel things, in others, to respond repetitively and predictably. Animal models -- rats and pigeons -- are used (i) to explore the generality of reinforced variability; (ii) to test for transfer of training; and (iii) to use reinforcement-of-variability techniques to study dynamic changes that occur within operant classes. To test generality, one study compares different types of reinforcers, food versus water versus social, and asks whether levels of variability correlate with speed of learning. Another compares how positive versus negative reinforcers influence variability. And a third asks whether differences between aged and young animals can be meliorated by explicit reinforcement of variations. A theoretically important question concerns whether animals and people learn to vary as a general competency, one that can transfer across a wide array of responses and contexts, or whether specific variations are limited to specific cases. If an organism can learn "to vary," and this comes under stimulus control, then many aspects of learning and skills training could be facilitated. Lastly, to study intra-operant effects, a model is established in which two or more operant classes share a subset of response instances. Effects of intra-operant sharing on response rates, probability distributions, choices, and skills acquisition are studied. These experiments analyze an important, but still not well-understood, aspect of behavior, namely, the control over behavioral variations exerted by reinforcing consequences.

描述（由申请人提供）：行为变异性在操作性学习、问题解决和创造力中发挥着重要作用。异常水平的变异性是某些精神病理学的特征，高水平的变异性见于注意力缺陷多动障碍，低水平的变异性见于抑郁症和自闭症。许多研究致力于确定变异性的来源及其控制方式。这笔赠款研究了一个潜在的重要来源，即直接取决于变异性本身的强化物，这一来源在过去受到的关注相对较少。可行的假设是，个体学习如何改变、改变什么、何时何地改变。这种学习是通过强化后果和歧视性刺激来控制的：在某些情况下，它会适应不可预测的行为或做新奇的事情，而在其他情况下，则会做出重复和可预测的反应。使用动物模型——大鼠和鸽子——（i）探索增强变异性的普遍性； (ii) 测试培训转移； (iii) 使用变异性强化技术来研究操作类中发生的动态变化。为了测试普遍性，一项研究比较了不同类型的强化物，食物、水和社交，并询问变异性水平是否与学习速度相关。另一个比较了积极和消极强化物如何影响变异性。第三个问题是，老年动物和幼年动物之间的差异是否可以通过明确强化变异来改善。理论上一个重要的问题涉及动物和人类是否学会将变化作为一种​​一般能力，一种可以在广泛的反应和环境中转移的能力，或者特定的变化是否仅限于特定的情况。如果一个有机体能够学习“变化”，并且这受到刺激控制，那么学习和技能培训的许多方面都可以得到促进。最后，为了研究操作内效应，建立了一个模型，其中两个或多个操作类共享响应实例的子集。研究了术中共享对反应率、概率分布、选择和技能获取的影响。这些实验分析了行为的一个重要但仍未被充分理解的方面，即通过强化后果来控制行为变化。