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Results for “REINFORCEMENT LEARNING”

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At least 1,441 records · Page 80Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

The effects of control on stress-induced gastric erosions: the use of active shuttle-box avoidance learning with yoked controls.

The aim of the present study was to investigate effects of instrumental control on the development of stress-induced gastric erosions by using a shuttle-box paradigm with yoked controls. In Experiment 1 the learning conditions had a reinforcement ratio of only 70% to increase stress during the short-term learning session. No significant differences of the mean cumulative length of gastric erosions between active avoiding and yoked groups were found. Experiment 2 tested three different reinforcement conditions (70%, 90%, 100%) with yoked groups. Again, no significant differences of the mean cumulative length of erosions between active avoiding and yoked control groups were obtained. Instead, the length of erosions decreased with increasing reinforcement. Taken together, the data show that the frequency of unavoided noxious stimuli as a function of the reinforcement schedule can be seen as a major influence on the development of gastric erosions in a shuttle-box paradigm.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Effects of feline immunodeficiency virus on cognition and behavioral function in cats.

Experimental intravenous challenge of 8-week old cats with the Maryland isolate of feline immunodeficiency virus, Maryland isolate (FIV-MD) was investigated for its effects on cognitive and behavioral function at 12 months postinfection. Six cats infected with FIV-MD were compared with age-matched controls on several behavioral measures. These measures included an open field observation, locomotion tests, traversing planks of various widths for food reinforcement, and a spatial learning task. No group differences were observed on any measure of locomotion. Differences were present with exploratory and stationary activity in the open field observation, with infected cats exhibiting higher levels of exploratory activity and in less stationary activity compared with that of control cats. In the plank-walking experiment, infected cats were less able to successfully cross progressively narrower planks compared with control animals. A holeboard paradigm was constructed to test spatial learning and memory, in which cats were required to locate food reinforcement based on position in the holeboard array. As a group, FIV-infected cats committed more reference (exploring an unbaited cup) and working memory (returning to a previously visited baited cup) errors than control cats. The main difference demonstrated was a higher activity level and associated distractibility in FIV-infected cats that appears to be related to their overall deficient performance when learning new tasks. These results indicate that behavioral function is altered and cognition is quantitatively impaired in FIV-infected cats.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Long-term potentiation in an avian basal ganglia nucleus essential for vocal learning.

Vocal learning in songbirds provides an excellent model for sensorimotor learning in vertebrates, with an accessible, well-defined behavior and discrete neural substrate. The rich behavioral plasticity exhibited by songbirds, however, contrasts starkly with the scarcity of candidate cellular mechanisms. Here, we report for the first time on an activity-dependent form of synaptic plasticity in area X, a component of the song system required for song learning and song maintenance. In slice preparations of zebra finch area X, pairing of high-frequency presynaptic stimulation with postsynaptic depolarization induces Hebbian long-term potentiation (LTP) of the glutamatergic inputs to spiny neurons. This form of LTP requires activation of NMDA receptors and D1-like dopamine receptors. In addition, LTP is observed in birds as young as 47 d after hatching and also in adult birds but not in younger birds, providing evidence of developmental regulation of the onset of synaptic plasticity. These properties make this form of LTP the best known candidate mechanism for reinforcement-based vocal learning in juveniles and song maintenance in adult birds.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

The self-care motivation model: theory and practice in healthy human development.

Effective health education and behavior motivation programs are needed to promote the compliance of children and young adults with preventive health care practices. Health promotion and primary prevention programs must consider the entire individual as well as his or her environment if positive behavior changes are to be maintained. This paper introduces an innovative model for self-care motivation curriculum development. The model prescribes the use of value clarification, enhanced physical/cognitive/affective awareness, positive lifestyle choices, and self-reinforcement skills training whereby individuals learn to become self-motivated and reinforcing agents for their own primary preventive health practices. It is theorized that by developing self-care and self-regulation skills, students will achieve and maintain higher levels of wellness, thus improving the quality of their lives and ensuring healthy human development.

Health Education↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Innate learning abilities].

Ethologists working with many species, studying overall behaviour, observing and experimenting in natural milieu, have first realized that animals are learning some things, sometimes complex, more easily than simple ones. It is almost always behaviour having an evident survival value. It is conceivable that during phylogenesis, the pressure of natural selection has developed to a high level the ability to acquire these behaviours, as an "inborn ability to learn". Seligman has proposed to call these reinforced evolutional behaviour as "prepared learnings". These learnings behaviours are present in both humans and animals: like for example feeding aversions which acquisition does not follow the classical laws of conditioning. Starting from these new facts, it is justified to propose a modification of aversive therapy in alcoholics and to reconsider theories concerning learning of certain pathological behaviour, such as phobia.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1979

Discrimination learning of delinquent boys as a function of reinforcement contingency and delinquent subtype.

Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of contingency management as a means of behavioral resocialization with delinquent boys on an individual basis. The present study was designed to examine and clarify systematically verbal and token reward and/or punishment. The principal findings of the study were: (1) Neurotic subjects performed at the highest level for punishment, at the lowest level for reward, and at an intermediate level for a combination of reward and punishment, regardless of verbal or token contingency modality. (2) Psychopathic subjects performed best for the joint verbal reward and punishment contingency, but they did not learn over trials for the joint token reward and punishment contingency. Their performance was undifferentiated at asymptote under the separate verbal and token reward or punishment contingencies. (3) Neurotic subjects performed at a significantly higher level than did psychopathic subjects for verbal and token punishment, while psychopathic subjects performed at a significantly higher level than neurotic subjects for verbal and token reward.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Learning at a distance II. Statistical learning of non-adjacent dependencies in a non-human primate.

In earlier work we have shown that adults, infants, and cotton-top tamarin monkeys are capable of computing the probability with which syllables occur in particular orders in rapidly presented streams of human speech, and of using these probabilities to group adjacent syllables into word-like units. We have also investigated adults' learning of regularities among elements that are not adjacent, and have found strong selectivities in their ability to learn various kinds of non-adjacent regularities. In the present paper we investigate the learning of these same non-adjacent regularities in tamarin monkeys, using the same materials and familiarization methods. Three types of languages were constructed. In one, words were formed by statistical regularities between non-adjacent syllables. Words contained predictable relations between syllables 1 and 3; syllable 2 varied. In a second type of language, words were formed by statistical regularities between non-adjacent segments. Words contained predictable relations between consonants; the vowels varied. In a third type of language, also formed by regularities between non-adjacent segments, words contained predictable relations between vowels; the consonants varied. Tamarin monkeys were exposed to these languages in the same fashion as adults (21 min of exposure to a continuous speech stream) and were then tested in a playback paradigm measuring spontaneous looking (no reinforcement). Adult subjects learned the second and third types of language easily, but failed to learn the first. However, tamarin monkeys showed a different pattern, learning the first and third type of languages but not the second. These differences held up over multiple replications, using different sounds instantiating each of the patterns. These results suggest differences among learners in the elementary units perceived in speech (syllables, consonants, and vowels) and/or the distance over which such units can be related, and therefore differences among learners in the types of patterned regularities they can acquire. Such studies with tamarins open interesting questions about the perceptual and computational capacities of human learners that may be essential for language acquisition, and how they may differ from those of non-human primates.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Comparison of two reinforcement strategies in vocational-skill training of mentally retarded persons.

While recommendations concerning reinforcement strategies in vocational training of retarded persons range from the use of minimal social reinforcement to the use of extra social and edible reinforcement, empirical comparisons of such strategies could not be found in the literature. Four experiments were conducted to compare minimal social reinforcement to social plus edible reinforcement while lower functioning retarded clients were taught assembly tasks of varying complexities. In all experiments, the extra reinforcement generally facilitated the learning of a task to criterion in terms of training time, number of trials, total number of errors, and the proportion of errors on learned steps. Moreover, a preference test showed that the majority of clients preferred the extra reinforcement condition.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Integrating children with severe disabilities for intensified outdoor education: focus on feasibility.

The feasibility of an intensified (i.e., all-day-for-2-weeks) integrated camping experience for children with and without severe disabilities was evaluated as was the impact of integrated programming on camp staff members' attitudes. Procedures employed for promoting social interactions included positive reinforcement and cooperative learning strategies. Task-analytic procedures were used to teach campers with severe disabilities a domestic skill and a life-long leisure activity. By the end of the 2 weeks, children with severe disabilities demonstrated substantially improved skills in targeted activities. Furthermore, campers without disabilities substantially increased their prosocial interaction bids, and ratings reflective of friendship increased significantly. Also, staff members' perceptions of operating an integrated camp versus a segregated one and their perceptions of the presence of participants with disabilities as facilitative of camp operations improved significantly.

Adolescent↗