Contents

Preface

1  Introduction

Discovery Versus Understanding

Belief Versus Evidence

Operational Definition

Facial Vision

Dependent Variable

Independent Variable

Experimental Control

Introspection

Intervening Variable

Experiment Versus Correlation

Adaptive Versus Maladaptive

Ethological Experiments

Color Vision

Arbitrary and Obligatory

Obligatory Patterns

Observation and Experiment

Experimental Psychology

Ethology of the Skinner Box

Plan of This Book

2  Classical Conditioning

Typical Procedures

Salivation

Leg Withdrawal

Eyeblink

Knee Jerk

Basic Terms

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Orienting Response (OR)

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

Conditioned Response (CR)

Response Measures

Acquisition

Extinction

Resistance to Extinction

Spontaneous Recovery

Habituation

Sensitization

Relationship Between Conditioned and Unconditioned Responses

Conditioned Response as a Fractional Response

Conditioned Response as a Prepatory Response

Generality

Experimental Subjects

Unconditioned Responses

Conditioned Stimuli

Arbitrary Stimuli

Ethology of Stimulus/Response Compatibility

Time and Sequence

Interstimulus Interval (ISI)

Length of the Interstimulus Interval

Conditioned Emotional Response

Social Conditioning

Imprinting

Conditioned Mobbing

Chemical Alarms

Emotional Words

Summary

3  Instrumental Conditioning

Typical Procedures

Reward

Escape

Avoidance

Punishment

Basic Terms

Unconditioned Stimulus

Response Measures

Response Variability

Acquisition

Extinction

Resistance to Extinction

Spontaneous Recovery

Generality

Maze Learning

Skinner Box

Schedules

Fixed Interval

Variable Interval

Fixed Ratio

Variable Ratio

Maintenance Versus Conditioning

Time Schedules

Discrimination

Successive Procedure

Simultaneous Procedure

Multiple Stimuli and Responses

Reinforcement and Inhibition Versus Differential Response

Summary

4  Mechanisms of Conditioning

Theory and Experiment

Stimuli and Responses

Four Basic Mechanisms

Common Sense

Parsimony

Implications

S-S Contiguity

Fractional Anticipatory Response

Length of the Interstimulus Interval

Direction of the Interstimulus Interval

S-S* Contingency

S-R-S* Contingency

Role of S*

Higher-Order Conditioning

Preconditioning

A Hybrid Paradigm

A Misnomer

S-R Contiguity

Sign Stimuli

Action Patterns

Temporal Patterns

Feedback Systems

Feed Forward Systems

Anticipatory Responses

Backward Conditioning

Rhythmic Patterns

Delay Conditioning

S-R Sequences

Contrast With Stimulus Substitution

Summary

5  Reinforcement Versus Expectancy

Response Contingent Reinforcement

S-R-S* Contingency

Goal Gradient

Learning the Shorter Path to a Goal

Order of Elimination of Blinds

Speed-of-Locomotion Gradient

Cognitive Expectancy

Unrewarded Trials

Free Exploration

Irrelevant Drive

Summary

6  Sequence and Anticipation

Latent Extinction

Segments of a T-Maze

Segments of a Goal Box

Drive Discrimination

Conditioned Rejection

Summary

7  Feed Forward Versus Feed Backward

Operational Definition

Defining Secondary Reward

Magazine Clicks

New Learning

Partial Reward

Interstimulus Interval

Summary

S-R Contiguity

S-R Chains in a Skinner Box

Preliminary Training

S-R-S^r

Discriminative Stimulus: S^d Versus S^r

Feed Forward Versus Feed Backward

Conditioned Eating

Magazine Click as S^d

Token Rewards for Chimpanzees

Money Feeds Forward

8  Continguity Versus Contingency

Shaping and Autoshaping

Superstition

Earning Versus Free Loading

Avoiding Food

Constraints and Contingency

Yoked Control

Experimental Design

Subject Selection

Readiness

Conclusion

Learning Without Hedonism

Bioassay

Inhibition and Competition

Feedback Versus Sign Stimuli

Autonomous Robots

Top-Down Robots

Bottom-Up Robots

Building From the Bottom Up

Bottom-Up Learning

Summary

9  Appetite, Aversion, and Conflict

Motive and Drive

Irritability

How Many Drives?

Evocative Stimuli

Selection

Summary

Aversion

Defensive Aggression

Suppression and Induction

Rhythmic Patterns

Avoidance

Compatibility

Operant Avoidance

Two Ways to Abolish Contingency

Earning Pain

Summary

Conflict

Homeostasis

Robots in Conflict

Fuzzy Control

Fuzzy Logic

Parallel Processing

Queuing

Control Problem

Fuzzy Solution

Biological and Industrial Priorities

Summary

10  Excitation, Inhibition, and Competition

Hull’s Excitation and Inhibition

Two Kinds of Inhibition

Massed and Distributed Practice

Resistance To Extinction

Overtraining

Summary

Competing Responses

Considering More Than One Response

Two-Choice Situations

Competition and Contingency

Summary

11  Reward Versus Nonreward

Operant Procedure

Partial Reward During Acquisition

Extinction After Partial Reward

Amount of Practice

Discrete Trials

Generality

Discrimination

Frustration

What is Wrong With 100% Reward?

Anticipatory Goal Responses

Anticipatory Errors

Summary

12  Places, Paths, and Bearings

Place Learning Versus Response Learning

Spontaneous Alteration

Intramaze Stimuli Versus Extramaze Stimuli

Odor Trails

Compass Bearing

Navigation

Radial Arm Maze

Morris Water Maze

Caching Food

Summary

13  Transfer

Stimulus Generalization

Basic Phenomenon

Implications

Peak Shift

Transposition

Spence’s Model

Psychophysics

Sign Stimuli

Dimensional Stimuli

Neural Networks

Habits, Hypotheses, and Strategies

Habits Versus Hypotheses

Overtraining and Reversal

Learning Sets

Problem Solving Versus Habit

Comparative Intelligence and Intelligent Comparisons

Summary

14  Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees

Cross-Fostering

Sibling Species

Sign Language

Sign Language Only

Ethological Considerations

Chimpanzee Subjects

Teaching Methods

Contrast With Operant Conditioning

Failure of Extrinsic Incentives

Uses of the Signs

Phrases

Word-for-Sign Translation

Creativity

Development

Modular Approaches

Modular Semantics

Modular Conversation

A Robust Phenomenon

Replication

Loulis

15  Concepts and Communications

Communication and Information

Vocabulary Tests

Objectives

Teaching and Testing

Rewards

Items and Exemplars

Photography

Novelty

Target Signs

Test Results

Chance Expectancy

Productive Tests Versus Forced Choices

Signs of ASL

Concepts

Communication and Language

Duality of Patterning

Ethology and Operational Definition

References

Author Index

Subject Index