Efeitos de um Análogo de Reforçamento Negativo sobre a Seleção de Culturantes / Effects of an Analogue of Negative Reinforcement on the Selection of Culturants

Resumo O presente estudo investigou os efeitos de um análogo de reforçamento negativo sobre a seleção de culturantes e, diferentemente de estudos anteriores, buscou eliminar a interferência da punição negativa de outros culturantes. Três microculturas de laboratório, com três participantes cada, foram expostas a um delineamento ABAB. Os participantes escolhiam entre linhas coloridas e numeradas de 1 a 10. Na condição de Reforçamento Positivo (A), os culturantes-alvo produziam consequências culturais. Na condição de Reforçamento Negativo (B), as consequências culturais eram subtraídas a cada 30s, mas os culturantes-alvo podiam adiar a perda dessas consequências. O análogo de reforçamento negativo, assim como o de reforçamento positivo, selecionou os culturantes-alvo sem a interferência de contingências punitivas acidentais.

Abstract The present research investigated the effect of a negative reinforcement analog on the selection of culturants and, unlike previous studies, sought to eliminate the interference of the negative punishment of other culturants. Three laboratory microcultures, with three participants in each of them, were exposed to an ABAB design. The participants chose between colored lines, numbered from 1 to 10. In the Positive Reinforcement condition (A), target culturants produced cultural consequences. In the Negative Reinforcement condition (B), cultural consequences were subtracted every 30 seconds, but target culturants could delay the loss of those consequences. The analog of negative reinforcement, as well as that of positive reinforcement, selected target culturants without the interference of accidental punitive contingencies.

Effects of Negative Punishment on Culturants in a Situation of Concurrence between Operant Contingencies and Metacontingencies.

Effects of negative punishment are analyzed either with an emphasis on undesirable behavioral byproducts or by reference to its possible role in an increase in group cohesion when punishment is contingent on behaviors undermining collective interests. The present study addresses negative punishment and its effects on social environments when operant contingencies and metacontingencies are concurrent and when the punitive event is contingent on culturant. Three microcultures with three participants each were exposed to a task in which each participant chose a row in a figure with four numbered rows shown on a computer screen. The experimental design was ABCABC. Operant contingencies were programmed such that in all conditions choosing an odd row produced three blue tokens and choosing an even row produced one red token. Programmed metacontingencies predicted consequences on Impulsive Culturant (Imp Cult, three odd rows or two odd rows and one even row) and Self-controlled Culturant (Self-contr Cult, three even rows or two even rows and one odd row). In Condition A, any culturant resulted in one school item being added to an item counter. In Condition B, Imp Cult resulted in the loss of one item, and Self-contr Cult produced the addition of one item. Finally, in Condition C, no culturant produced losses or additions of items. The results indicated that negative punishment reduced the percentage of Imp Cult, particularly in MC1 and MC3, maintaining high percentages of Self-contr Cult. The results suggest that at the cultural level, the effects of negative punishment are similar to those observed at the operant level.

Learning-set de reversões, de discriminações simples em macaco-prego / Learning-set of simple discrimination reversals in a capuchin monkey

A aquisição repetida de discriminações simples pode determinar uma crescente eficiência na aprendizagem dessas discriminações. Esse efeito é conhecido como learning-set. O mesmo efeito pode ser observado em reversões repetidas de uma mesma discriminação ou em reversões repetidas de discriminações simples combinadas (RRDSC). O presente estudo relata a aplicação de RRDSC com até seis estímulos (três positivos e três negativos), simultaneamente, com um macaco-prego (Cebus cf. apella). Ao longo das repetidas reversões, avaliou-se o efeito de learning-set em duas variáveis: a) número de acertos processados até o critério de seis acertos consecutivos e b) número de tentativas até o critério. Os dados indicam a obtenção de learning-set nas RRDSC. Discutem-se os procedimentos que mais contribuíram para essa demonstração

Repeated acquisition of simple discrimination may determine an increasing efficiency in learning suchdiscriminations. This effect is known as learning-set. The same effect can be observed on repeatedreversals of the same discrimination or on repeated yoked reversals of simple discriminations(RYRSD). The present study reports the use of RYRSD with up to six stimuli (three positive and threenegative) simultaneously with a capuchin monkey (Cebus cf apella). Over the course of the repeatedreversals, the learning-set effect was evaluated taking into account two variables: a) number of correctresponses processed until criterion of six consecutive correct responses is reached and b) number oftrials until the criterion is reached. The data indicate learning-set in simple discrimination on yokedreversals. We discuss the procedures that contributed the most to this demonstration