Six Shaver‐Starcross hens with no prior experimental experience served as
participants in two experiments which were designed to empirically test
Catania's concept of the operant. The stimulus consisted of a cream coloured
rectangle against a black background shown on a standard LCD computer
monitor. An infrared touch screen mounted to the front of the LCD monitor
recorded the location of all responses made by the participants. Experiment one
consisted of autoshaping the rectangle pecking response. This was done using
an automated computer program designed to eliminate latencies between
responses and reinforcement, as well as positional biases which may have been
introduced via manual autoshaping. The program successfully eliminated
latencies and positional biases introduced by the experimenter, but took longer
than anticipated to autoshape the desired response in the participants. It is
suggested that procedural differences account for the unusual length of time
taken to autoshape the participants in this experiment. Preliminary inquiry
investigating procedural differences shows that it may be possible to model
speed of acquisition more accurately than done so at present, without
retrospective analysis of the acquisition data itself. In experiment two the active,
reinforced zone of the rectangle was reduced. The participants had no visible
cue demarcating active and inactive zones of the rectangle, yet in accordance
with Catania's operant, responding across all participants came to fall within the
active, reinforced zone of the rectangle. The results; shifts in response
distributions in relation to the changes in contingencies, offer empirical support
for Catania's operant in terms of positive reinforcement across a single
parameter of responding. The implications of these findings imply that when
variability in responding is important; for example in learning, exploring,
creating, and problem solving, Catania's operant may be favourable over
Skinner's operant as a vehicle for identifying and controlling variables associated
with behavioural outcomes due to its greater topographical inclusivity.
Contemporary behavioural analysis favours a behavioural systems approach
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where the respondent and operant class distinction merges; the environment
affects the organism as much as the organism affects the environment. Catania's
operant is complementary to behavioural analysis in this vein.
