Hiroto Okouchi

This analogue study examined the effectiveness of a social-standard setting on self-instructional control for cold-pressor pain. Twelve male undergraduates were served as participants. Self-instructions were effective on the increase in the tolerance time to iced water compared to baseline. When participants thought experimenter knew their instructions, the tolerance time to iced water was longer than that when participants thought no one knew their instructions. Any self-instructional control was not observed on subjective measures (pain perception and unpleasantness). These results suggest that the effect of social-standard setting on self-instructional control for pain was partially replicated. Some future research directions were discussed.

Study objectives: The purpose of the present study was to analyze everyday behavior, specifically, whether the interval between train arrivals would influence passengers' behavior of arriving at the platform. Design: The pattern of the number of people arriving at a platform during the interval between trains was compared at 3 stations where the intervals between train arrivals differed. Settings: The study was conducted at 3 stations in the Kansai district (western Japan) at which only local train stopped. Participants: All passengers boarding trains on the selected platforms during the observation period were participants. Independent variable: The number of trains arriving at a station per hour (2, 6, or 12) was the Independent variable. Results: The longer the interval between trains, the more people tended to arrive at the platform just before the train came. Conclusion: The present results suggest that the arrival of trains functions like a reinforcer, so that the interval between trains functions like a reinforcement schedule.

The present article reviews studies on the experimental analysis of rule-governed behavior. The main results are as follows: (1) Although instructions are effective in establishing an efficient occurrence of responses, sensitivity to changes in the contingencies is reduced when instructions are used. (2) Contingencies that contact the instructions eliminate instruction-following responses. (3) A history of correspondence between instruc tions and reinforcement schedules promotes instruction-following responses. (4) Without certain programmed contingencies, self-rules correlate with nonverbal responses. (5) Nonverbal responses generally covariate with self-rules. When reinforcement schedules for nonverbal responses are strong and contradict the contingencies for verbal responses, however, the nonverbal responses do not co-vary with the self-rules. (6) When a chain of a self-rule and a nonverbal response was reinforced, the self-rule and nonverbal responses were correlated. Some future directions for research on rule-governed behavior were discussed from the viewpoint of social contingencies.

Study objective: The purpose of this study was to establish self-instructional control by differential reinforcement of novel chains of self-instruction and nonverbal behavior. Design: 3 conditions were compared: a verbal-nonverbal noncorrespondence history condition, a verbal-nonverbal correspondence history condition, and a no-history condition. Setting: An experimental room. Participants: Undergraduates (8 males, 15 females; 18-27 years old) with no prior experience with experiments on reinforcement schedules. Procedure: 5 participants in Experiment 1, and 4 in Experiment 2, all of whom were in the verbal-nonverbal noncorrespondence history condition, were exposed to an FR schedule when they had chosen an instruction to respond slowly, and a DRL schedule when they had chosen an instruction to respond rapidly. Following this, an FI schedule was in effect regardless of the instruction chosen. Results: For these 9 participants, response rates during the FI schedule were higher when the instruction to respond slowly had been chosen than when the instruction to respond rapidly had been chosen. Such control by self-instruction was not observed for participants who did not have a history of differential reinforcement of verbal-nonverbal noncorrespondence in this setting. Conclusion: The results suggest that self-instructional control can be classified as a response chain.

Seventeen undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of four groups and were exposed first to a multiple fixed-ratio / differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (mult FR DRL) schedule, then to a multiple fixed-interval / fixed-interval (mult FI FI) schedule. Subjects in the Minimal Instruction condition received no instructions regarding rates of responding. Subjects in the Accurate Instruction condition were instructed to respond rapidly and slowly under the FR and DRL components respectively. under the mult FI FI schedule, a constant reinforcer magnitude was delivered for the Standard FI subjects, whereas reinforcer magnitude varied with number of responses during the interval for the Modified FI subjects. For 3 of 4 subjects in the Minimum Instructions / Standard FI group, higher rates of FI responding occurred under the stimulus previously correlated with FR than that previously correlated with DRL. As a whole, stimulus control by the history effect was stronger for subjects in the Accurate Instruction condition than for those in the Minimum Instruction condition. The effects of instructions were not influenced by the correlation of reinforcer magnitude with response number.

Effects of training tasks and feedback on the control of peripheral skin temperature were examined. Eight male undergraduate students participated in 12 training sessions under 3 conditions : maximum amount task (MAT), maximum frequency task (MFT), and no feedback (NFB) conditions. Subjects were asked to increase temperature of right index finger as large as possible and were presented amount related feedback and monetary reward under the MAT condition, while they were asked to increase it as long as possible and were presented time (frequency) related feedback and monetary reward on the MFT condition. Under the NFB condition, the procedure was almost the same as that under the MAT condition except feedback stimulus was not presented. Skin temperature of 5 subjects increased after 5 trainihg sessions. There was not any clear differences of skin temperature change between 2 training tasks. Feedback had interference effects on performances of skin temperature control. That is, in all subjects except 1,performances under the MAT and MFT conditions were inferior to that under the NFB condition during the last 7 sessions. Performances were related with verbally reported relaxation.