Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Decrease of Precurrent Behavior as Training Increases: Effects of Task Complexity

  • Published:
The Psychological Record Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

When someone is described as memorizing a phone number, part of what is being asserted is that the person is capable of dialing the number without looking it up in the directory. Such responses, which may decrease and stop occurring as training increases, can be interpreted as nonrequired precurrent behavior. In different experiments, participants could look up an auxiliary screen to see the numbers (Experiment 1) or arbitrary characters (Experiment 3) corresponding to different shapes. In Experiment 2, a typing task with a covered keyboard was used, in which participants could look up an auxiliary screen to see key positions. Duration of precurrent response, divided by correct current responses, decreased as a linear function of the logarithm of trials in all three experiments. In Experiment 3, the complexity of the task was changed, by altering the number of responses to be learned per pair, per position, and in the total task. Results indicated that these variables produced systematic effects on performance and are compatible with an interpretation of task complexity based upon the quantification of the programmed contingencies of reinforcement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • ALESSI, G. (1987). Generative strategies and teaching tor generalization. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 5, 15–27.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • BÄUML, K. H. (1997). The list-strength effect: Strength-de pendent competition or suppression? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 4, 260–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BICKEL, W. K., HIGGINS, S. T., & HUGHES, J. R. (1991). The effects of diazepam and triazolam on repeated acquisition and performance of response sequences with an observing response. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 56, 217–237.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • BLOUGH, D. S. (1959). Delayed matching in the pigeon. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2, 151–160.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • BREHMER, B. (1992). Dynamic decision making: Human control of complex systems. Acta Psychologies, 81, 211–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BRUNER, A., & REVUSKY, S. H. (1961). Collateral behavior in humans. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 4, 349–350.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • CATANIA, A. C. (1992). Learning (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • COREN, S. E., & WARD, L. M. (1989). Perception and information. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’AMATO, M. R., ETKIN, M., & FAZZARO, J. (1968). Cue-producing behavior in the capuchin monkey during reversal, extinction, acquisition, and overtraining. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 11, 425–433.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • DEESE, J. (1958), The psychology of learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • DINSMOOR, J. A. (1983). Observing and conditioned reinforcement. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 6, 693–728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • EBBINGHAUS, H. (1964). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. New York: Dover. (Original work published 1885).

    Google Scholar 

  • ECKERMAN, D. A. (1970). Generalization and response mediation of a conditional discrimination. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 13, 301–316.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • HACKMAN, J. R. (1969). Toward understanding the role of tasks in behavioral research. Acta Psychologica, 31, 97–128.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • HEARST, E. (1962). Delayed alternation in the pigeon. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 5, 225–228.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • HODOS, W., ROSS, G. S., & BRADY, J. V. (1962). Complex response patterns during temporally spaced responding. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 5, 473–479.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • JANS, J. E., & CATANIA, A. C. (1980). Short-term remembering of discriminative stimuli in pigeons. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 34, 177–183.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • KERSTHOLT, J. H. (1992). Information search and choice accuracy as a function of task complexity and task structure. Acta Psychologica, 80, 185–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LATIES, V. G., WEISS, B., CLARK, R. L, & REYNOLDS, M. D (1965). Overt “mediating” behavior during temporally spaced responding. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 8, 107–116.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • LATIES, V. G., WEISS, B., & WEISS, A. B. (1969). Further observations of overt “mediating” behavior and the discrimination of time. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 43–57.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • MUELLER, K. L., & DINSMOOR, J. A. (1984). Testing the reinforcing properties of S-: A replication of Lieberman’s procedure. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 41, 17–25.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • NEWELL, K. M. (1991). Motor skill acquisition. Annual Review of Psychology, 42, 213–237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • OHTA, A. (1987). Observed responses maintained by conditional discriminative stimuli. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 48, 355–366.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • OLIVEIRA-CASTRO, J. M. (1992). “Fazer na cabeca”; Uso metafórico e negativo [“Doing in the head”: Metaphorical and negative use]. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 8, 267–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • OLIVEIRA-CASTRO. J. M. (1993). “Fazer na cabeça”: Análise conceitual, demonstrações empfrícas e considerações teóricas [“Doing in the head”: Conceptual analysis, empirical demonstrations and theoretical considerations]. Psicologia USP, 4, 171–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • PARSONS, J. A., TAYLOR, D. C., & JOYCE, T. M. (1981). Precurrent self-prompting operants in children: “Remembering”. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 36, 253–266.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • PAYNE, J. W. (1982), Contingent decision making. Psychological Bulletin, 92, 382–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • POLSON, D. A., GRABAVAC, D. M., & PARSONS, J. A. (1997). Intraverbal stimulus-response reversibility: Fluency, familiarity effects, and implications to stimulus equivalence. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 14, 19–40.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • POLSON, D. A., & PARSONS, J. A. (1994). Precurrent contingencies: Behavior reinforced by altering reinforcement probability for other behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 61, 427–439.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • POSTMAN, L. (1972). Transfer, interference and forgetting. In J. W. Kling & L. A. Riggs (Eds.), Woodworth & Schlosberg’s Experimental Psychology (pp. 1119–1132). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • RATCLIFF, R., CLARK, S., & SHIFFRIN, R. M. (1990). The list-Strength effect I: Data and discussion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. 16, 163–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • RYLE, G. (1949). The concept of mind. London: Hutchinson.

    Google Scholar 

  • SHIMP, C. P., & MOFFITT, M. (1977). Short-term memory in the pigeon: Delayed-paired-comparison procedures and some results. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 28, 13–25.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • SIMON, H. A. (1972). Complexity and the representation of patterned sequences of symbols. Psychological Review, 79, 369–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SIMON, H. A. (1974). How big is a chunk? Science. 183, 482–488.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: The Macmillan Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1968). The technology of teaching. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1969). Contingencies of reinforcement: A theoretical analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • SUNDSTROM, G. A. (1987), Information search and decision making: The effects of information display. Acta Psychologica, 65, 165–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • THORNDIKE, E. L. (1898). Animal intelligence: An experimental study of the associative processes in animals. Psychological Review Monograph Supplements, 2(No. 4), 109.

    Google Scholar 

  • TORGRUD, L. J., & HOLBORN, S. W. (1989). Effectiveness and persistence of precurrent mediating behavior in delayed matching to sample and oddity matching with children. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 52, 181–191.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • VANLEHN, K. (1996). Cognitive skill acquisition. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 513–539.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • WOOD, R. E. (1986). Task complexity: Definition of the construct. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Process, 37, 60–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Processos Psicológicos Básicos, Instituto de Psicologia, Universid ade de Brasilia, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Brasilia, DF 70910-900, Brasil

    Jorge M. Oliveira-Castro, Domingos S. Coelho & Gardênia A. Oliveira-Castro

Authors
  1. Jorge M. Oliveira-Castro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Domingos S. Coelho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gardênia A. Oliveira-Castro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jorge M. Oliveira-Castro.

Additional information

Portions of Experiments 1 and 2 were presented at the 21st and 23rd Annual Meeting of the Sociedade Brasileira de Psicologia, October 1991 and 1993, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, and at the 21st Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis, May 1995, Washington DC. Portions of the data of these experiments appeared in a Portuguese publication (see Oliveira-Castro, 1993). Experiment 3 was part of Domingos S. Coelho master’s thesis, presented at the Universidade de Brasilia in November 1995. Portions of Experiment 3 were presented at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Sociedade Brasileira de Psicologia, October 1995, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, and at the 23rd Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis, May 1997, Chicago. The authors thank Ana Lídia G. Gama, Eileen P. Flores, Glaycilene S. Oliveira, Pedro Oliveira, Carlos B. A. Souza, and Eduardo Schwarz for help in the collection of data, and Dudley Terrell for helpful comments on previous versions of this manuscript. Financial support was received from CNPq, Brazil

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Oliveira-Castro, J.M., Coelho, D.S. & Oliveira-Castro, G.A. Decrease of Precurrent Behavior as Training Increases: Effects of Task Complexity. Psychol Rec 49, 299–325 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395322

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395322

Search

Navigation