An implicit assumption in the study of operant conditioning and reinforcement learning is that behavior is stochastic, in that it depends on the probability that an outcome follows a response and on how the presence or absence of the output affects the frequency of the response. In this paper we argue that classical probability is not the right tool to represent uncertainty operant conditioning...

In this study we examined the genetic contribution of the D4R in food and cocaine self-administration using D4R mice. Mice were examined for operant responding to food pellets or intravenous cocaine. Compared to wild-type mice (D4R(+/+)), both heterozygous (D4R(+/-)) and knockout (D4R(-/-)) mice showed no difference in responding for food or cocaine. Our findings suggest that the D4R is not dir...

Objective: The present study aims at investigating the effects of behavioral therapy techniques through operant conditioning and observational learning on children’s aggression aged 4-6 years.  Methods: To this end, a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study with two experimental groups and a control group was designed. We used non-probability purposive sampling method to select 45...

The modern zoo has been associated with two major behavioral welfare advances: (a) the use of training to increase voluntary husbandry care, and (b) implementation environmental enrichment promote naturalistic behaviors. Both practices have their roots in behavior analysis, or operant conditioning-centered, reward-based approach psychology. Operant conditioning served as foundation for developm...

An operant is a behavioral act that has an impact on the environment to produce an outcome, constituting an important component of voluntary behavior. Because the environment can be volatile, the same action may cause different consequences. Thus to obtain an optimal outcome, it is crucial to detect action-outcome relationships and adapt the behavior accordingly. Although prefrontal neurons are...

Since 1960, American behavioral scientists and clinicians have widely endorsed behavior modification techniques based on learning theory. A large segment of these specialists has been particularly interested in the use of response-focused operant conditioning. Because of its popular acceptance, its nature, its effectiveness, and its rapid application as a clinical method for effecting behaviora...

Operant conditioning can contribute to the development of behavioral toxicology in many ways. Its techniques are useful in training animals in the various behaviors the toxicologist may wish to study. They make possible the sophisticated assessment of sensory functioning. Operant conditioners excel at using schedules of intermittent reinforcement to create the type of stable animal performance ...

Although responses are sometimes easy to predict, at other times responding seems highly variable, unpredictable, or even random. The inability to predict is generally attributed to ignorance of controlling variables, but this article is a review of research showing that the highest levels of behavioral variability may result from identifiable reinforcers contingent on such variability. That is...

Recent studies indicate that rats can increase or decrease H-reflex amplitude in response to an operant conditioning paradigm. In addition, rats also display a circadian rhythm in H-reflex amplitude. As part of the development of H-reflex conditioning in the rat as a new model for defining the plasticity underlying a simple form of learning, this study examined the relationship in the rat betwe...

Hoffman, Flory, and Alberts (1999) demonstrated that 1-, 5-, and 11-day-old rats in a cool environment (25 degrees C) acquired an operant head-turning response when rewarded with a 20-s warming of the platform on which they lay. In the current experiment 5- and 11-day-old rats in a hot environment (40 degrees C) acquired the head-turning response when rewarded with a 20-s cooling of the platfor...