Certain basal forebrain neurons encode the learned reinforcement value of objects: they respond differentially to visual stimuli that signal availability of fruit juice (positively reinforcing) or saline (negatively reinforcing) obtained by lick responses in visual discrimination tasks. In this report we describe the rapid, learning-related changes in the responses of these neurons during the a...

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) may result in rates of reinforcement that are impractical for caregivers to implement; therefore, recent research has examined methods for thinning reinforcer delivery during DRA. In this study, reinforcer delivery was thinned during DRA by restricting access to the participant's alternative response materials.

In the present study, physical model tests were conducted to investigate the effect of the geogrid reinforcement on the reduction of the differential settlement in widening of a highway embankment. A water bag filled with water and placed beneath an embankment was used to simulate the soft foundation of the widened portion of the embankment in the physical model test. Water from the water bag w...

Functional analysis of low-rate aggression was conducted during extended observation periods and showed behavior to be maintained by positive reinforcement. Treatment consisted of variable-momentary differential reinforcement of other behavior and was successful in reducing problem behavior throughout these extended observation periods.

A functional analysis showed that noncompliance occurred most often for 2 preschoolers when it resulted in termination of a preferred activity, suggesting that noncompliance was maintained by positive reinforcement. A differential reinforcement procedure, which involved contingent access to coupons that could be exchanged for uninterrupted access to the activity maintaining noncompliance, was s...

Escape (termination of a meal) and token-based differential reinforcement of alternative behavior were used as reinforcement to increase acceptance of food. Using a changing criterion design, the number of bites accepted and consumed was gradually increased to 15 bites per meal. These data suggest that, in some cases, escape may be a potent reinforcer for food acceptance.

We investigated whether a simplified habit reversal treatment eliminates fingernail biting and related oral-digital habits exhibited by individuals with mild to moderate mental retardation. Although simplified habit reversal did little to decrease the target behaviors for 3 of 4 participants, simplified habit reversal plus additional treatment procedures decreased the behavior to near-zero leve...

We evaluated a differential-reinforcement-based treatment package for the reduction of problem behavior during instructional situations. Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA; compliance) was implemented across two conditions. During one condition, instructions were presented approximately once every other minute. This condition was considered the terminal goal for treatment. ...

Our data rule out a broad class of behavioral models in which behavioral change is guided by differential reinforcement. To demonstrate this, we showed that the number of reinforcers missed before the subject shifted its behavior was not sufficient to drive behavioral change. What's more, many subjects shifted their behavior to a more optimal strategy even when they had not yet missed a single ...

We present a novel trajectory optimization framework to address the issue of robustness, scalability and efficiency in optimal control and reinforcement learning. Based on prior work in Cooperative Stochastic Differential Game (CSDG) theory, our method performs local trajectory optimization using cooperative controllers. The resulting framework is called Cooperative Game-Differential Dynamic Pr...