Queen's University Belfast, School of Biological Sciences, Belfast BT9 5DL, Northern Ireland, UK.
Southern Illinois University, School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, Carbondale 62901, United States; Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Department of Psychology, Bogotá 110231, Colombia.
Behav Processes. 2022 Nov;203:104770. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104770. Epub 2022 Oct 22.
Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) procedures entail the response-independent, time-based delivery of a reinforcer (e.g., delivery of a reinforcer on a fixed-time 15 s schedule - FT 15 s). Although NCR has been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment of undesired behaviours in human learners, very few studies have examined it in nonhuman animals. We investigated how NCR with and without extinction (another well-studied behavioural intervention) affected an arbitrary response in companion dogs. The 'stepping on a rug' response was shaped and established in lieu of a problem behaviour in six dogs. Stepping was then exposed to fixed-interval (FI 15 s), fixed-time (FT 15 s), a combination of these schedules of reinforcement (FT 15 s + FI 15 s), and an extinction-only condition. The results indicated that NCR was effective in reducing the target behaviour in three out of the six dogs. These effects were greater in the NCR-with-extinction procedure than in the NCR-without-extinction condition. Future research should investigate the effects of schedule thinning and other schedules of reinforcement (e.g., variable-time schedules) on the behaviour of companion dogs.
非关联强化（NCR）程序涉及到反应无关的、基于时间的强化物的给予（例如，在固定时间 15 秒的时间表上给予强化物 - FT 15 秒）。尽管 NCR 已被证明对治疗人类学习者的不良行为有效，但很少有研究在非人类动物中进行过。我们研究了 NCR 与（另一种经过充分研究的行为干预）有无消退对伴侣犬的任意反应的影响。在六只狗中，用“踩地毯”的反应代替问题行为进行塑造和建立。然后，踩地毯的反应暴露于固定间隔（FI 15 秒）、固定时间（FT 15 秒）、这些强化时间表的组合（FT 15 秒+FI 15 秒）和仅消退的条件下。结果表明，在六只狗中的三只狗中，NCR 有效地减少了目标行为。在有消退的 NCR 程序中的效果大于没有消退的 NCR 条件。未来的研究应该调查schedule thinning 和其他强化时间表（例如，可变时间时间表）对伴侣犬行为的影响。
