David A Eckerman

• Ph D
• Professor Emeritus at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Resumo Introdução: o comportamento, como uma função biológica do organismo, pode ser tomado como objeto de estudo da neuropsicologia, já que parte do propósito dessa ciência é identificar, caracterizar e compreender as variáveis que o afetam, como a exposição crônica a agentes tóxicos. Objetivo: sustentar a ideia de que o comportamento humano pode...

O n-hexano é um químico industrial relativamente comum e empregado em diversos produtos e processos industriais. A compreensão de aspectos toxicológicos é um importante fator para o manejo da higiene industrial, a fim de evitar o risco de contaminação com o solvente. Este trabalho é uma revisão de pesquisas e escritos que caracterizam os aspectos t...

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an adaptive, computer-based staff training software program called Train-to-Code (TTC) to teach the administration of a social skills intervention. The software program actively trained participants to identify whether video models illustrated each step of the procedure effectively or ineffectively. Multipl...

We evaluated the impact of a customized training program developed using an observation and behavioral coding software system (i.e., Train-to-Code) to teach implementation of Phase 3A of the Picture Exchange Communication System to four undergraduate students. The training program coached participants on all relevant steps of the procedure. To acco...

Two pigeons were trained to strike different locations on a 10 in long panel of response keys in the presence of different intensities of white light. Generalization testing was undertaken during extinction by varying the intensity of light through intermediate values. Response distributions to intermediate stimulus values were bi-modal with modes...

Undergraduates made an “x” on a series of blank sheets of paper in a study designated as an “acquisition of a manual skill.” Each mark was designated as “correct” or “incorrect” by the E, but according to a pre-fixed order rather than according to characteristics of the response. Variability in location of the mark on the page was lowest during tri...

Pigeons were trained to peck at each of four stimuli projected onto a response key. Subsequently, responding was reinforced in the presence of a compound stimulus composed of two of these stimuli (red background with horizontal white bar) and extinguished in the presence of a compound stimulus composed of the other two stimuli (green background wit...

The radial arm maze is now widely used to assess spatial control of behavior. Determination of chance performance on the maze may be made difficult, however, because of response biases. Simulation of arm selection under various biases was used to provide several estimates of chance accuracy of arm selection. These estimates emphasize the type and d...

This article introduces a taxonomy based on a procedural operations analysis (Verplanck, 1996) of various method descriptions found in the behavior observation research literature. How these alternative procedures impact the recording and subsequent analysis of behavioral events on the basis of the type of time and behavior recordings made is also...

A new approach is offered wherein behavior emitted by neural networks without antecedent stimuli is either shaped to produce a patterned behavioral output (Simulation 1) or is strengthened by delayed reinforcement through the mediation of response afterdischarges (Simulation 2). These networks demonstrate how Stein's InVitro Reinforcement (lVR) of...

Assessment of the harm caused by exposure to pesticides requires that a measure of exposure be available. While such information is available without difficulty in controlled laboratory studies, estimating the exposure of humans who have been exposed in the real world is difficult. The difficulty is increased if exposures have taken place over an e...

Adolescents (10 to 18 years old) from a rural area in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil were tested using the Behavioral Assessment and Research System (BARS) to evaluate their performance. Participants were drawn from two areas--a school serving farm children (rural N=38) and a school serving children from a city within this area (urban N=28). T...

Participants received different amounts of information in either a cTRAIN computer-based instruction (CBI) program or in a booklet format, presented before or concurrently with interactive questions about the information. An interactive CBI presentation that required an overt response during training produced equivalent acquisition and retention to...

Introduction: Interactive computer-based safety instruction (CBI) was given to 73 workers in the food services department of an urban hospital. Results: Post-test accuracy (95%) improved significantly (p < or = 0.0001) from the pre-test (74.5 %), d = 1.09. Generalization was confirmed by increased accuracy in answering questions, posed on-the-jo...

The Behavioral Assessment and Research System (BARS) is a computer-based testing system designed to assess neurobehavioral function in humans. It was developed to provide a series or battery of neurobehavioral tests optimized for the detection of neurotoxicity in non-mainstream human populations, specifically people with limited education or litera...

Sniffy Pro - O Rato Virtual é um programa de computador, acompanhado de um manual de laboratório, que tem como proposta servir de recurso didático aplicado ao ensino introdutório de Análise Experimental do Comportamento, em especial às atividades práticas normalmente desenvolvidas em laboratórios de condicionamento operante que empregam ratos como...

Sniffy Pro - The Virtual Rat is a computer software program as well as a laboratory textbook developed to serve as an alternative teaching tool to be used in introductory courses on the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, especially the laboratory activities that usually employ rats as experimental subjects and Skinner boxes as apparatuses. The main...

A tenet of behavioral education is that interactive training produces superior retention compared with reading. However, this has not often been directly tested and never with practical occupational information in working adults. Adults from diverse occupational backgrounds learned the principles of proper respiratory protection presented (a) in a...

A neural network simulation of Eckerman, Hienz, Stern & Kowlowitz (1980) "Long Key" experiment showed a good match to the effective shaping of the location of a pigeon's keypeck. The neural network model was biologically based on In-Vitro Reinforcement (IVR) principles of learning. The behavioral function of the model was a "Win-Stay" strategy. Res...

A computer-aided training program was developed in SuperCard and piloted with professional painters. Taking a modern programmed-instruction/behavioral-education approach, cTRAIN is structured as a series of information sets. Each information set consists of a series of information screens (three to five recommended) followed by quiz screens (one to...

A profound problem in viewing operant learning as selection appears to be the identification of replicators. Given the lack of consensus on what constitutes the appropriate unit of analysis for behavior, there may be multiple levels at which the metaphor of selection may be usefully applied. A final difficulty: The elements of selection in the evol...

A computer-aided training program was developed in SuperCard and piloted with professional painters. Taking a modern programmed-instruction/behavioral-education approach, cTRAIN is structured as a series ofinformation sets. Each information set consists of a series of informationscreens (three to five recommended) followed by quiz screens (one to t...

We demonstrate the In Situ testbed, a system that aids in evaluating computational models of learning, including artificial neural networks. The testbed models contingencies of reinforcement rising an extension of Mechner's (1959) notational system for the description of behavioral procedures. These contingencies are input to the model under test....

Recently, some behavior analysts have recommended the use of computer simulations to augment, or even replace, verbal and mathematical interpretations of behavior. This report raises the question as to what computer simulation adds to other analyses of behavior. We present examples of the human behavior of arithmetic calculation in order to illustr...

A pigeon earned its daily food by pecking a key according to reinforcement schedules that produced food about once per day. Fixed-interval (FI), Fixed-time (FT), and various complex schedules were arranged to demonstrate the degree to which a scalloped pattern of responding remained. Pausing continued until about an hour before the reinforcer could...

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry convened a workshop in Atlanta, GA, that evaluated approaches and methods to ascertain whether there are neurobehavioral sequelae to children and adults exposed to hazardous substances in the environment. This article, developed from that workshop, addresses the feasibility of employing extant ne...

The effects of neonatal dopamine depletion on activity levels and locomotor patterns were tested in rats at 4 months of age. Measurements were taken using an activity pattern monitor. The lesioned group was significantly hypoactive in comparison to the control animals during the initial exposures to the monitor. Examination of locomotor paths indic...

The relative potency of d- and l-threo-methylphenidate (d-MPH and l-MPH) was evaluated using three behavioral paradigms for rats: Responding maintained by a fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement (FI), responding maintained by a concurrent variable-interval schedule of reinforcement (Conc VI VI), and consumption of sweetened condensed milk during...

Two groups of rats (N=4 each) were trained to discriminate either triadimefon (40 mg/kg) or methylphenidate (4 mg/kg) from saline in a two-lever, milk-reinforced drug discrimination paradigm. Dose-response functions were determined during 5-min extinction sessions. Both agents produced a dose-related increase in the percentage of responses that occ...

Goals for undergraduate training in psychology are reviewed, and a survey is reported to suggest ways in which computers are being used to meet these goals. Currently computers primarily aid data collection and analysis. Computer-based literature searching and word processing are becoming more common. The true challenge of laboratory training, howe...

The time course of serum concentration and performance on a concurrent probability matching task were evaluated in normal adults receiving 0.15 or 0.3 mg/kg of methylphenidate. The behavioral task, an arcade-like problem-solving game, revealed that drug-treated subjects improved their performance upon repeated testings during pharmacokinetic evalua...

Rats were trained to press a lever for food pellets provided according to a fixed interval 60-sec schedule of reinforcement. Probe trials (peak trials) assessed responding over two-min periods with no pellet delivered. The low rates of responding found early and late in probe trials were increased by methylphenidate and 1.0 mg/kg d-amphetamine (rat...

The onset and sequential changes of psychosexual arousal for male and female were compared. During an erotic film presentation, genital hemodynamic and groin skin temperature measures of sexual arousal recorded moderate to large increases for both sexes. A sequential analysis revealed strikingly similar male—female response patterns for both the ge...

The validity of groin skin temperature as a relatively unobtrusive physiological measure of psychosexual arousal was tested for both males and females. Groin skin temperature and hemodynamic (penile circumference, vaginal blood volume, and vaginal pulse amplitude) changes induced by erotic and non-erotic film presentations were monitored in 10 male...

This manuscript reports the results of a problem-solving exercise presented to participants at a Workshop on Neurotoxicology Testing in Human Populations held in Rougemont, North Carolina in October, 1983. Response recommendations are the consensus of workshop participants. These are not comprehensive or definitive solutions and should be interpret...

A description is offered for a microcomputer-based testing system which utilizes an Apple II microcomputer with the Pascal language and additional hardware resources. Tasks implemented for the system have been selected to broadly sample cognitive functioning with some sensory and motor evaluation as well. Efforts to evaluate sensitivity, task inter...

A workshop was held in October 1983 at Rougemont, NC to review strategies and methods for neurotoxicity testing in human populations. Behavioral and electrophysiological testing methods were discussed with a major focus on computerized test batteries. Brief reviews of test methods organized in terms of sensory, motor and cognitive function were pre...

Microcomputers can serve many functions in undergraduate education, including control of laboratory experiments, presentation of classroom demonstrations, generation of handouts, and monitoring student performance. Panel members of a symposium presented several general guidelines for the use of microcomputers, and specific guidelines for selecting...

An Apple II + computer-based human testing system is described. The system, which was developed using the Pascal language, provides library units of low-level procedures to rapidly access a clock, collect responses, control video output, control a touch-sensitive monitor, and display high-resolution graphics. Built-in hardware and software checks p...

This report describes the hardware and software developed to implement an Apple II (48 KB) as a real-time control device for operant experiments. The hardware has a straightforward design, so that it is readily understandable and can be built by individuals with only minimal experience in the use of integrated circuits and other electronic componen...

Long-Evans rats were intubated with 0.3 or 1.0 mg/kg of triethyltin sulfate (TET) or 0.3 mg/kg of trimethyltin hydroxide (TMT) from postnatal day 3-29. 1.0 mg/kg of TMT was given on alternate days beginning on postnatal day 3. Learning and memory were assessed in an automated radial-arm maze when the rats were 180-200 days old. With this maze accur...

Several resources are available to the person seeking to develop a laboratory course that utilizes microprocessors. Several roles for such equipment are envisioned, and some of the issues regarding types of equipment and programming languages are addressed.

Pigeons were trained to peck keys on fixed-ratio and fixed-interval schedules of food reinforcement. Both schedules produced a pattern of behavior characterized as pause and run, but the relation of pausing to time between reinforcers differed for the two schedules even when mean time between reinforcers was the same. Pausing in the fixed ratio occ...

For several pigeons, pecking at particular locations within a ten-inch-wide response area was reinforced by grain presentations. The reinforced locations changed systematically to "shape" response location back and forth across the area. The rate and size of these shifts in reinforced locations were varied in both between-subject and within-subject...

Rats were trained to obtain food pellets from the end of each arm of an eight-arm radial maze. Baseline performance was characterized by very few entries into arms from which the food pellet had already been obtained. In Experiment 1, neither d-amphetamine (0.1−3.0 mg/kg) nor pentobarbital (1.0−10.0 mg/kg) affected choice accuracy, although the rat...

In choosing between small, immediate and large, delayed reward, an organism behaves impulsively if it chooses the small reward and shows impulse control if it chooses the large reward. Work with nonhumans suggests that impulsivity and impulse control may be derived from gradients of delayed reinforcement. A model developed by Ainslie and by Rachlin...

In choosing between small, immediate and large, delayed reward, an organism behaves impulsively if it chooses the small reward and shows impulse control if it chooses the large reward. Work with nonhumans suggests that impulsivity and impulse control may be derived from gradients of delayed reinforcement. A model developed by Ainslie and by Rachlin...

The collateral behavior of pigeons under differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedules was evaluated for its role in controlling DRL performance. Two of three pigeons engaged in high rates of collateral keypecking under schedules up to DRL 28 sec. Rate of collateral pecking was positively correlated with DRL efficiency. Topographical featu...

Nine pigeons in a matching-to-sample task with 5 alternative stimuli were exposed to 4 dose levels of sodium pentobarbital. Each drug session alternated with a control session, and 6 determinations were made at each dose level. Dose-response curves were obtained, and drug effects are described for position-specific and stimulus-specific behaviors....

Pigeons were intermittently given grain reinforcement for key pecks. Occasional 30-sec keylight changes (warning stimulus) were followed by a brief electric shock, which suppressed responding during the warning stimuli. This suppression was reduced by diazepam and ethanol, yet combinations of the two drugs did not reduce suppression (antagonistic e...

Two pigeons were exposed to a multiple schedule of grain reinforcement where key-pecks were reinforced according to a fixed ratio schedule in the presence of one stimulus and a fixed interval schedule in another stimulus. The fixed interval was adjusted to match average interreinforcer time for the fixed ratio schedule. d-Amphetamine decreased over...

Results of a study with 10 White Carneaux pigeons show that Ss' conditional discrimination accuracy was equally disrupted by administering sodium pentobarbital when the discriminations required a 3-alternative symbolic matching-to-sample task (if blue, select green; if green, select red; if red, select blue) as when it required a 3-alternative symb...

Argues that D. Carter and D. Eckerman's (see record 1975-20678-001) conclusion that identity plays no role in pigeons' learning is overstated and that the learning measure they used was not sensitive enough to assess identity learning. Data from 8 domestic pigeons which were trained to match or mismatch sample shapes show that Ss tested under the...

Pigeons had no greater difficulty learning a complex discrimination involving arbitrary among stimuli (symbolic matching) than one involving interrelations based on stimulus similarity (matching-to-sample). The relative rates of acquisitions of matching and symblic matching may be accounted for by the discriminability between sample stimuli and bet...

Pigeons' key pecking was studied under a number of discrete-trial fixed-interval schedules of food reinforcement. Discrete trials were presented by briefly illuminating the keylight repetitively throughout the interreinforcement interval. A response latency counterpart to the fixed-interval scallop was found, latency showing a gradual, negatively a...

Two pigeons were trained to peck a response key under a procedure in which 5-min periods of keylight-on alternated with 6-min periods of blackout. During keylight-on periods, food reinforcement was provided for the first peck following 20 sec (E schedule), 120 sec (M schedule), or 300 sec (L schedule) into the period. In different experimental cond...

Pigeons were exposed to a single-key sequential choice procedure in which the choice phase was followed by either a multiple fixed-interval schedule of food reinforcement where different key-lights indicated which FI was in effect or by a mixed fixed-interval schedule of food reinforcement where the same key-light was present for either FI. In the...

Six pigeons were trained to peck at a 135° line (S+) and not to peck at a 45° line (S−). Training, given in a two-key operant chamber, included both successive and simultaneous presentations of S+ and S−. Extinction and maintained generalization tests were subsequently given to measure rate of responding to S+, S− and three intermediate line orient...

The effect of increases in the rate of responding in one component of a multiple schedule upon the rate of responding in a second component was investigated. Pigeons were exposed to a multiple schedule where both components were initially variable-interval schedules having the same parameter value. After rate of key pecking stabilized, one componen...

Fifteen pigeons were given conditional discrimination training in which a colored sample stimulus determined which of two line comparison stimuli (vertical and horizontal) was correct. As part of the conditional discrimination procedure, birds were required to make an "observing response" to the sample stimulus presented on a wide key. The location...

Describes a microcomputer-based testing system that uses an Apple II microcomputer with the Pascal language and additional hardware resources. Tasks implemented for the system have been selected to broadly sample cognitive functioning and some sensory and motor evaluation as well, including perceptual apprehension, reaction time (RT) and movement,...

Presents 4 exposure scenarios, and their recommended solutions, that represent real-world situations previously encountered by neurologists and epidemiologists. The scenarios involve (1) leaking chemicals from a chemical dump affecting the townspeople; (2) a manufacturing company's dumping of metallic mercury into the ground and creek, possibly con...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1966.

During a stimulus-available period (SAP) within a fixed-interval (FI) schedule of reinforcement, each response produced a distinctive key color change (response key color changed from white to green). The influence of the temporal placement of the SAP within the FI was determined for 2 pigeons. Responding was reduced during SAP for all placements....

The effect of several reinforcement schedules on the variability in topography of a pigeon's key-peck response was determined. The measure of topography was the location of a key peck within a 10-in. wide by 0.75-in. high response key. Food reinforcement was presented from a magazine located below the center of the response key. Variability in resp...

Two experiments demonstrated that matching-to-sample performance was improved when an explicit observing response was required to the sample stimulus. The first experiment demonstrated that fewer training sessions were required to establish matching with than matching without such a response. The second experiment demonstrated the dependence of est...