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PROJECTOR SLIDE CHANGING AND FOCUSING AS OPERANT REINFORCERS
Author(s) -
Benton Richard G.,
Mefferd Roy B.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1967.10-479
Subject(s) - stimulus (psychology) , psychology , nonsense , projector , focus (optics) , audiology , sharpening , lever , colored , communication , cognitive psychology , computer vision , computer science , optics , medicine , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , materials science , composite material , gene , quantum mechanics
Uninstructed subjects choose to view, in sharp focus where possible, projected visual images in preference to various simpler auditory and visual stimuli ( e.g ., buzzers of flashing lights). The rate of responding on the lever rapidly increased above the operant level (projector inoperative) even though the stimuli were nonsense syllables. When focusing also was made contingent on responses, the subjects promptly started sharpening the focus of legible but blurred nonsense syllables. When the visual material was colored landscape scenes, the rates of slide‐changing generally decreased, because of increased viewing time relative to the nonsense syllables, at the same time that the latencies of focusing decreased. Both the sharpness of focus and the total time spent with the image in sharp focus increased greatly with the colored slides, establishing that the subjects were under control of the stimulus events. Extinction of both responses occurred very rapidly when the controls became inoperative.