Alcohol use disorder, unemployment, and homelessness are interrelated problems that are concentrated among people living in poverty. A recent clinical trial evaluating an employment-based contingency management intervention called abstinence-contingent wage supplements (ACWS) found that ACWS promoted alcohol abstinence, increased employment, and reduced poverty among unemployed adults experiencing homelessness and alcohol use disorder. This secondary analysis evaluated employment and poverty outcomes during the intervention for the 62 participants randomized into the ACWS group using paystubs and self-reported measures collected during the intervention. Paystub measures correlated positively with self-reported outcomes. Most ACWS participants (n=41; 66%) obtained employment during the intervention. During the intervention, employed participants became employed in 6.0 weeks, worked at a job or training program for 15 weeks, worked 33.7 hr per week while employed or in training, and earned $1,054.31 per pay period, on average. Most employed participants earned enough income to qualify as living out of poverty for at least one pay period (80%). While employed, participants lived above the poverty level for most pay periods (79%) during the intervention. Understanding the effects of the ACWS intervention on employment and poverty may prove useful in providing targeted support to people at increased risk of poverty-related health problems.

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a classwide appetitive Pavlovian conditioning protocol implemented in two inclusive kindergarten classrooms. Each classroom enrolled similar distributions of typically developing children and children who were either eligible for special education services or diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Two Pavlovian conditioning trials (CS+ ➔ US) and two unpaired trials (CS‐ ➔ no US) per day were superimposed on normal classroom activities at random times. Conditioned responses (i.e., positive emotional responding and attention directed to the CS) were recorded during the CS+ and CS‐ events. In both classrooms—one in which the teacher verbally specified the Pavlovian contingency and one in which they did not—the CS+ evoked significantly more of both conditioned responses in typically developing children. Children with developmental disabilities showed significantly more CS+‐evoked attention, but the effect size was smaller than among typically developing children. The CS+ did not evoke significantly more positive emotional responding in the children with developmental disabilities unless the teacher verbally specified the CS+ ➔ US contingency. Such procedural refinements may be important if a therapeutic appetitive CS is to influence adaptive operant behavior via, for example, conditioned reinforcement or Pavlovian‐to‐instrumental transfer in children with developmental disabilities.

Identifying component skills necessary for the emergence of intraverbal tacts, or verbal responses under control of both a verbal and nonverbal antecedent stimulus, is important because the occasion for this skill often occurs in a child's everyday life. Previous research has begun to identify a sequence of component skills that may lead to the emergence of multiply controlled intraverbals. However, it remains unclear which component skills are necessary versus sufficient. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of teaching a subset of component skills, element tact and intraverbal categorization, to identify the skills sufficient for emergence of intraverbal tacts. A multiple-probe design was used to assess intraverbal-tact emergence for five participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder during pre-and post-element-tact and intraverbal-categorization teaching sessions. Emergence of intraverbal tacts was also assessed during recombinative-generalization probes. Results indicated that intraverbal tacts emerged for all participants following acquisition of element tacts and intraverbal categorizations. As no other component skills were taught, these data suggest that these component skills may be sufficient for intraverbal tact emergence. Implications for identifying necessary component skills and directions for future research are discussed.

We generated analogies based on observed spatiotemporal relations. In Experiment 1, six adults observed arbitrary stimuli in a spatiotemporal sequence (A1 followed by A2, A3, A4, A5 and then A1). Then they were taught to select the first stimulus following the sample in the presence of one contextual cue X (e.g., given A2, select A3) and to select the stimulus immediately preceding that stimulus in the presence of another contextual cue Y (e.g., given A2, select A1). Finally, they received a conditional discrimination (CD) probe with three-stimuli samples (3-SS-CD) in which the sequential relation between the first two stimuli set the occasion for selecting a comparison with the same relation to the third stimulus (A2A3 A1, select A2). Most participants demonstrated emergence. In Experiment 2, the procedure included a second set of B stimuli and a CD probe with A and B stimuli (i.e., A4, A5, B2, as sample and Bs as comparisons). All eight participants demonstrated emergence. Participants also observed new sequences with novel stimuli, without X or Y, and demonstrated emergence of the 3-SS-CD. The results demonstrated a type of analogical responding close to that observed in traditional analogy tasks and found basic learning processes involved in it.

We arranged conditions of social enrichment for a group of six pigeons as part of a larger program of research concerned with an animal model of gambling. When not in their experimental sessions, the pigeons lived together in a free-flying aviary, interacting with each other and with a physical environment that included perches, nesting materials, and nesting boxes. This enabled a range of species-typical social behavior including courtship, mating, and reproductive behavior. To minimize human involvement and the potential stress of daily captures, we devised procedures whereby the pigeons could choose to exit each day by flying one-by-one on cue into a box attached to the porthole door of the aviary from which they were transported to the test apparatus for their daily experimental sessions. By the end of this training, all pigeons were consistently entering the box independently in the presence of their own distinctive cues for transport to the session, and this continued for a maintenance phase during which each pigeon chose to participate in 120 daily sessions. The findings show the power of using reinforcement-based methods to solve practical problems in animal enrichment and welfare, balancing the welfare needs of the animals with the needs of the research.

Alternative-reinforcement-based treatments are common strategies for reducing maladaptive behavior in humans. When conditions of alternative reinforcement are made worse in some way, however, behavior that was targeted for elimination may resurge. Previous research using rat subjects has demonstrated that high-magnitude (relative to low-magnitude) alternative reinforcement produces faster elimination of target behavior but more resurgence once removed. The purpose of the present experiment was to assess cross-species generality of these effects to mice. During Phase 1, lever pressing produced single food pellet reinforcers. Next, during Phase 2, lever pressing was extinguished and groups of mice experienced either small-magnitude (one pellet), large-magnitude (three pellet), or no alternative reinforcement for nose poking. All food was suspended in Phase 3 to assess resurgence. As an additional goal of this study, changes in resurgence across successive determinations were assessed by cycling between periods during which alternative reinforcement was present or absent. Large-magnitude alternative reinforcers produced faster suppression of target behavior but more resurgence when removed than did small-magnitude alternative reinforcers. Moreover, this effect endured across repeated resurgence tests.

Testing the evolutionary theory of behavior dynamic's predictions about choice under concurrent random-ratio schedules It should have been: Testing the evolutionary theory of behavior dynamics' predictions about choice under concurrent random-ratio schedules This has been corrected in the article.We apologize for the error.

A search for language in nonhuman animals has intrigued psychologists and ethologists, offering insights into the evolution of human linguistic abilities. Recent findings in both ethology and behavior analysis/animal cognition highlight exciting developments. In behavior analysis, Peter J. Urcuioli (1952-2022) successfully demonstrated the phenomenon of stimulus equivalence in pigeons and proposed a theory (2008) that underlies pigeons' performance. In ethology, Suzuki and colleagues discovered that Japanese tits use two-word compositional syntax, one of the first demonstrations in animals other than humans. This article compares these two research areas to highlight their similarities and suggests future directions for studying the evolution of language and cognition in both human and nonhuman species. Written in honor of Dr. Urcuioli, this article recognizes his contributions to behavior analysis, psychology, and ethology, advancing understanding of animal cognition and its broader implications for humanity.