Cristina Santos

Arizona State University | ASU · Department of Psychology

Substance abuse research depends on precise and sensitive assessments of reinforcer efficacy in animal models. However, conventional methods often lack theoretical rigor and specificity. To address these gaps, the Modular Maximization Theory (MMT) is introduced as a comprehensive framework for understanding instrumental behavior. Like earlier maxim...

Reversal learning has been studied in many species, often as an indicator of their behavioral flexibility. Although this research typically focuses on individuals, groups of social animals, especially social insects, are often considered to have similar learning capabilities. Associative learning has been rarely studied in ant colonies and their be...

Reversal learning has been studied in many species, often as an indicator of their behavioral flexibility. Although this research typically focuses on individuals, groups of social animals, especially social insects, are often considered to have similar learning capabilities. Associative learning has been rarely studied in ant colonies and their be...

Associative learning is an important adaptive mechanism that is well conserved among a broad range of species. Although it is typically studied in isolated animals, associative learning can occur in the presence of conspecifics in nature. Thus, social animals may use the behavior of other group members as cues while learning. Although social aspect...

Reversal learning has been studied in many species, often as an indicator of their behavioral flexibility. Although this research typically focuses on individuals, groups of social animals, especially social insects, are often considered to have similar learning capabilities. Associative learning has been rarely studied in ant colonies and their be...

We used a midsession reversal task to investigate how temporal and situational cues may combine to determine choice in frequently changing environments. Pigeons learned a simultaneous discrimination with 2 stimuli: S1 and S2. Choices of S1 were reinforced only during the first trials, and choices of S2 were reinforced only during the last trials of...

Our goal was to assess the role of timing in pigeons' performance in the midsession reversal task. In discrete‐trial sessions, pigeons learned to discriminate between 2 stimuli, S1 and S2. Choices of S1 were reinforced only in the first half of the session and choices of S2 were reinforced only in the second half. Typically, pigeons choose S2 befor...

In a midsession reversal task, subjects choose between two stimuli on every trial; only responses to one stimulus are reinforced. Halfway throughout the session, contingencies are reversed: previously reinforced responses are now extinguished and vice versa. Both, the outcome of the previous trial and the time elapsed since the beginning of the ses...

The behavior systems framework suggests that motivated behavior-e.g., seeking food and mates, avoiding predators-consists of sequences of actions organized within nested behavioral states. This framework has bridged behavioral ecology and experimental psychology, providing key insights into critical behavioral processes. In particular, the behavior...

We examined how biasing time perception affects choice in a midsession reversal task. Given a simultaneous discrimination between stimuli S1 and S2, with choices of S1 reinforced during the first, but not the second, half of the trials, and choices of S2 reinforced during the second, but not the first, half of the trials, pigeons show anticipation...

In relatively simple choice tasks, some animals seem to behave irrationally by making suboptimal choices. Zentall (2019) suggests that these animals may choose according to a variety of heuristics that are adaptive in their natural environments but maladaptive in the contrived laboratory settings. We argue that Zentall’s specific heuristics range f...

Resumen Esta sección tiene la función de diseminar las noticias y los comentarios de interés para la Sociedad Mexicana de Análisis de la Conducta. Se incluyen: las palabras del presidente de la sociedad en la inauguración del XXVIII Congreso Mexicano de Análisis de la Conducta, información acerca de la Behavior Analyst Certification Board® y la acr...

Primer on Learning and Conditioning: A Quantitative Approach” by Federico Sanabria is a very recent publication that fills a gap commonly overlooked by other introductory texts books to the psychology of learning: the quantification of behavior. The author addresses this issue it in most simple way: using only basic high school algebra knowledge an...

In the midsession reversal task, the typical anticipation and perseveration errors around the reversal point suggest that the effect of reinforcement is modulated by time. In order to assess the effect of reinforcement probabilities on time perception in this task, we varied the payoffs on each half of the session. Most manipulations produced biase...

In a midsession reversal task animals are required to do a simultaneous color discrimination between S+ and S-, and half way through the session contingencies are reversed. Typical performance of anticipation and perseveration errors around the reversal point, suggests that the effect of reinforcement is modulated by the time elapsed from the begin...

Three groups of pigeons were trained in a midsession reversal task that required simultaneous color discrimination between S+ and S-, and in which contingencies were reversed half way through the session. For one group, in each session the probability of reinforcement during the first half was 1, and 0.2 for the second half. For another group the r...

Seven pigeons were trained in a midsession reversal task that required simultaneous color discrimination between S+ and S-. Half way through the session, contingencies were reversed and probabilities of reinforcement changed. All birds were exposed to two different phases. In one phase, the probability of reinforcement during the first half was 1 a...

A freezing response paradigm was used to assess some of the traditional control procedures in the study of latent inhibition (LI) and the novel prediction of a neural network model of a posible facilitation of learning by preexposure to another stimulus. Eight groups of rats were assigned to different conditions according to the preexposure treatme...

Traditionally, latent inhibition (LI) experiments consider one of two controls for assessing LI. One is context control, where the subject is preexposed to the training context alone. In the other subjects are preexposed to a non-target CS. Both procedures, however, suffer from difficulties. Boughner, Thomas, & Papini (2004) argue that the context...

A neural-network model was used to simulate latent inhibition. The model takes into account the roles of hippocampal and dopaminergic systems in conditioning. Partially connected networks first received 400 trials of A alone, followed by 200 pairings of B and the unconditioned stimulus (US). All stimuli were simulated as maximal activations of inpu...