1. REM: A Universal Theory of Generalization, Discrimination and Summation in Associative Learning

Bill Whitlow (Rutgers University, USA)

Allan Wagner's REM theory of associative learning predicts that generalization tests and summation tests can be explained in terms of a single parameter, (1-r), that represents the replacement of suppressed elements by configural elements when stimulus components are combined in stimulus compounds. This talk presents evidence that supports this prediction when REM is supplemented with a representation of the cues common to the components used in testing.

2. Effects of delay of reinforcement on ABA renewal

Carlos Flores, L. Rebeca Mateos Morfin & Kenneth Madrigal (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico)

ABA renewal was assessed by decreasing response rates by means of extinction or a 12-s delay of reinforcement in one experiment with rats. In a first phase, rats were trained to lever press for water in Context A. Rats were exposed to a second phase in Context B, where lever-pressing decreased for all rats; for one group of rats, lever-pressing decreased by means of extinction, while lever-pressing decreased by means of a 12-s delay for the other group. During a third phase, both groups were once again exposed to Context A with no reinforcer deliveries for lever-pressing. Once rats were exposed to the latter phase, renewal was observed for both groups, being higher for the Extinction Group. Results suggest that delay of reinforcement can be used as an alternative procedure to help reduce behavior and prevent relapse

3. A preliminary bibliometric analysis of the work of Robert A. Rescorla

Felipe Varas, Jonathan Badilla, Vanetza Quezada-Scholz, Gonzalo Miguez, Mario A. Laborda (Department of Psychology, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile)

Robert A. Rescorla was a distinguished American psychologist, who stood out for his relevant theoretical and methodological contributions in the area of associative learning, even coming to be named as the heir of Pavlov. His work as researcher and teacher has been featured multiple times, receiving the award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution from the American Psychological Association, the Pavlovian Research Award from the Pavlovian Society, and the Ira Abrams Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Pennsylvania. The goal of the present research was to describe and analyse the work published by the author. A bibliometric analysis was carried out using the Web of Science database as a tool to compile Rescorla’s work from 1975 to the present. Then, the compiled work was analyzed through the following indexes: publications by year, type of document, affiliations, journals, and collaboration with authors and their affiliations. 119 documents were analyzed, mostly articles, finding: a) an annual productivity of 3.3 documents; b) two affiliations in his career; c) he collaborated with 21 authors, on a few occasions and only with one author signing from a foreign country; d) his publications are grouped mostly in 3 journals. His work had and still has a wide impact on the international community, being cited thousands of times, on all continents, and with a growing increase in his citations per year. The impact of Rescorla’s work is discussed from considering citing articles, the authors and institutions that cite him the most, and his particular way of publishing.

4. A preliminary bibliometric analysis of the work of Allan R. Wagner

Jonathan Badilla, Felipe Varas, Vanetza Quezada-Scholz, Gonzalo Miguez, Mario A. Laborda (Department of Psychology, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile)

Allan R. Wagner was a world-renowned psychologist for his important contributions to the theoretical and empirical development of the study of learning, developing explanatory models of great impact. He received a variety of relevant awards for his work such as the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the American Psychological Association, the Pavlovian Research Award from the Pavlovian Society, and the William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science. In the present research, a bibliometric analysis of Allan R. Wagner's published work registered in the Web of Science database from 1975 to the present was performed. For the analysis of the material, various bibliometric indexes were used to evaluate his areas of production, affiliations, publications by year, type of published document and the journals in which they were published, and the collaboration with authors and their nationality. A total of 44 publications were found, mostly articles, all signed under the affiliation of Yale University. Their great collaborative work stands out, collaborating in more than 90% of the total documents analyzed, where American and Chilean authors stand out. As for the journals, the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes stands out. The analysis of the citing articles shows a high impact work, receiving more than one thousand citations, with citations increasing every year, an h-index of 20 and an average number of citations per manuscript of 30.2. Finally, the impact of his work is discussed through the authors and institutions that have cited him most and his collaborations.

17. Response recovery of a Discriminated Operant after an Outcome Devaluation in Humans

Rodrigo Carranza-Jasso - UAA, Hugo Reyes - UAA, Marina Gonzalez - UAA, Francisco Pedroza - UAA.

The context plays a determinant role in the learning of relations between stimuli and responses. Also, manipulations focused in devaluating the reinforcer used during conditioning has proven useful as a strategy that can decrease the emission of the conditioned response. Nevertheless, this reduction produced by the outcome devaluation has not been studied to determine an interaction with the delivery of an extinction phase afterwards, as well as its effect over response recovery phenomena, such as renewal or reacquisition. Method Participants: Seventy-two undergrad students (n=12, approximately 78.5% female), with ages ranging between 18 and 35 years old. They accepted voluntarily to enroll in the study and were experimentally naïve at the beginning of their participation. Materials: Three HP ProBook 440 G3 Notebooks, were used to conduct the experimental. Procedure: All experiments were integrated by four main phases: Acquisition, Devaluation, Extinction and Within-Subjects Test. Results These experiments showed that devaluating the reinforcer after a brief acquisition phase produced a reliable reduction over the ABA renewal effect as well as decreasing response recovery in a re-acquisition test conducted in a context different from that where extinction occurred. Nevertheless, a prolonged acquisition phase was resistant to the reinforcement devaluation procedure. Discussion Overall, these results suggest that complementing extinction with a direct outcome devaluation during training of a discriminated operant response in human participants has a direct effect over the extinction performance. Thus, similar reinforcement contingencies could be integrated into traditional extinction-based therapies as an effort to reduce relapse.

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