In order to effectively teach new skills, it is important to identify ways in which to reinforce the behavior. One important aspect of reinforcement is the way in which the reinforcer is delivered upon the completion of the task. Direct and indirect reinforcement are examples of two different contingencies of reinforcement, each associated with different stimulus arrangements. Direct reinforcem...

Discovering whether children prefer reinforcement via a contingency or independent of their behavior is important considering the ubiquity of these programmed schedules of reinforcement. The current study evaluated the efficacy of and preference for social interaction within differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) and noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) schedules with typically d...

Optimization theory states that organisms behave in a way that maximizes reinforcement or "value." In a two-response situation, pigeons' response proportions approximately equaled reinforcement proportions, even when this behavior pattern substantially decreased the rate of reinforcement. Optimization or reinforcement maximization was not supported as the basic mechanism underlying choice behav...

Cooperating robots can benefit from communication. Our robots create their own adaptable synthetic robot languages (ASRLs). We have shown that robots can develop “basic”, context dependent, and compositional ASRLs using reinforcement learning techniques. (See (Yanco 1994) for a complete description of this work.) We have demonstrated that the robots are able to develop ASRLs using two different...

the use of methods employed for estimating the strength and toughness of composites reduces the trial-and-error in their design. the strength of interface between reinforcement and matrix and the effective surface of pulled-out particles have great influences on toughness and strength of these composites. in this study, a model was proposed to estimate the interface strength and matrix strength...

We evaluated four methods for increasing the practicality of functional communication training (FCT) by decreasing the frequency of reinforcement for alternative behavior. Three participants whose problem behaviors were maintained by positive reinforcement were treated successfully with FCT in which reinforcement for alternative behavior was initially delivered on fixed-ratio (FR) 1 schedules. ...

The use of reinforcement and rewards is known to enhance memory retention. However, the impact of reinforcement on higher-order forms of memory processing, such as integration and generalization, has not been directly manipulated in previous studies. Furthermore, there is evidence that sleep enhances the integration and generalization of memory, but these studies have only used reinforcement le...

Enhancement of the response of reinforced concrete (RC) beams using fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcement bars has become a popular structural technique over the past two decades due to the well-known advantages of FRP composites including their high strength-to-weight ratio and excellent corrosion resistance. Thisstudy presents n...

by MARGARET MARY SKELLY This dissertation investigates the incorporation of function approximation and hierarchy into reinforcement learning for use in an adaptive control setting through empirical studies. Reinforcement learning is an artificial intelligence technique whereby an agent discovers which actions lead to optimal task performance through interaction with its environment. Although re...