The activity of 5 and 6 yr. old children was measured in a specially designed playroom under conditions of silence and two types of music, fast and slow. Activity rates were higher during the intervals when music was played, with fast music having the more marked effect. Music did not affect the variability of activity, which showed a steady decline during the time spent in the...
Errors in discriminating the letters O and D in a forced-choice design were measured with 4 Ss when the exposure of either letter was accompanied or followed by a ring encircling it. The delay between offset of the letter and onset of the ring varied from concurrent presentation of both, through 0 msec. delay to 120 msec. delay, in steps of 10 msec. The letter and ring were...
An optimum dose of norepinephrine elicits in satiated rats a greater consumption of saccharine-treated mash but less of quinine-treated mash than in 3-hr. food deprived rats. These and other possible differences between deprivation eating and chemically elicited eating are in contrast to the eating elicited by electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus.
Ss solved a “mental jigsaw puzzle” following training either with names that were relevant to the problem, with irrelevant names, or without names. The jigsaw problem was presented either concretely or symbolically. At the symbolic level, relevant names facilitated and irrelevant names hindered problem solution, relative to the unnamed condition. Naming had no reliable effects at...
Twenty-four letter pairs generated by elementary grammars formally similar to a child’s first grammars were presented to 3 groups of adult Ss for recall. The first grammar had a simple structure, the second a more complex structure, and the third, random pairings. In all of these groups, the Ss responded as if they had been presented the simple grammar. They learned neither the...
Capuchin monkeys were first trained on a color discrimination and then reversed. Later these same colors formed irrelevant background cues for a form discrimination. Despite the ready availability of the irrelevant (color) dimension, the controls reversed the form discrimination just as fast as overtrained Ss. Yet the controls reverted to color earlier than the overtrained Ss and...
One, two, or four food pellets were presented when a rat spaced its responses longer than 18 sec. The percentage of total responses which were reinforced was highest for the one-pellet condition and lowest for the four-pellet condition. Interresponse times were longest in the one-pellet condition.
Rats were depleted of body sodium and presented with solutions of either sodium or non-sodium salts. Patterns of licking were monitored with a drinkometer. The rats given the sodium salts drank at a high rate throughout a 100 sec. observation period. The rats given the non-sodium salts stopped drinking after the first few licks. The difference between the groups was statistically...
Electrophysiological recordings from the chorda tympani nerve of the rat were obtained during prolonged taste stimulation by sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions. The response consists of two phases: an initial transient response followed by a brief decline to a maintained steady state activity that shows little further decrement during 5 min. or longer of recording. The level of...
Monkeys’ performance on a previously learned task involving visual signal-from-noise detection was shown to be a moderately sensitive behavioral drug assay which is more specific to the effects of chlorproma-zine (CPZ) than pentobarbital (PB). Magnitude of the effect of CPZ was inversely related to the detect-ability of the visual signal.
Retroactive inhibition (RI) of R-S associations was investigated by comparing B-A recall following A-B, A-C learning with B-A recall following A-B learning and an interpolated rest activity. Highly integrated and available sequences of A units were employed to avoid greater A unit availability in the experimental group at the time of recall. The results indicated significant RI...
Differential gain, cost, and event probability were varied in a two-choice situation. Increases in the gain associated with a correct response, increases in the probability of being correct, and decreases in the cost of an incorrect response all result in increases in the probability of that response. Gain had a greater effect than cost, but both variables became less effective...
Rats with anterior cingulate lesions showed a sustained mean increase of 22% in water ingestion. They also showed an immediate postoperative decrease of 30% in food intake followed by a prolonged elevation of 8%. Sham operated, cortical control subjects, and normal animals did not show any changes in food or water ingestion.
Seven rats were run to water reinforcement in a straight runway while a measure was taken of anticipatory licking in the runway and consummatory licking in the goal box. Licking rate was shown to increase in a positively accelerated manner as S approached the goal box and to increase in a negatively accelerated manner with training. The results are discussed in relation to Spence...
Many studies have reported inordinate difficulty in obtaining avoidance learning in discriminated bar-press and related situations, particularly with visual cues (illumination changes) serving as the CS. It is shown that avoidance learning can be substantially increased by dissociating the CS from the manipulandum, which usually occur in close physical proximity. In verification...
A squirrel monkey was trained to press and hold down a lever in the presence of a blue light. Subsequent release of the lever on appearance of a white circle was reinforced with a food pellet. The monkey was tested under two different foreperiod conditions: (1) the white circle appeared at a variable period from 0-5 sec. following the lever press, and (2) the white circle...
Two studies are reported dealing with avoidance conditioning in rats. In the first study the stability of the shuttle response was investigated in 4 Ss running 2 hrs. a day over an 18 day period. Stable long term avoidance responding was obtained. Except for extinction, no decrement in avoidance responding developed at anytime. In the second study, fixed ratio reinforcement of...
Ss who were exposed to diffuse, homogeneous illumination for a week showed an increase in tactual acuity and in sensitivity to heat and pain. This cutaneous supersensitivity, however, was not as pronounced as that occurring after a week of darkness.
One of the primary obstacles to research on boredom and subjective time experience is seen to be the lack of techniques which permit quick, precise boredom manipulations. The use of posthypnotic cues for this purpose is suggested and performed on a single male subject. Four degrees of boredom triggered by cues in the waking state show a remarkably consistent and significant...
Pigeons were trained in an appetitive conditioning situation (CS paired with the presentation of food). The CS-US interval was 1 sec. for one group and 10 sec. for another. Stabilimetric measures of anticipatory activity showed better conditioning at the longer interval.
The subjective estimation of shock strength is more similar to that of other skin modalities than previously thought, but the exponent of the power function for electric shock is largely determined by the techniques used to assess it.
Fresh water turtles were trained to press a lever for food reinforcement. Sessions were conducted in a test chamber containing water which varied from 58° to 85°F. Individual response rates were not identical, but the functions tended to be parallel.