Physiology and Behavior, Vol. 14, pp. 651--654. Brain Research Pubhcations Inc., 1975. Printed m the U.S.A.

BRIEF COMMUNICATION Adjunctive Behavior in Humans During Game Playing M. WALLACE, G. SINGER, M. J. WAYNER 1,2 AND P. COOK

Department o f Psychology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia 3083

(Received 11 February 1975)

WALLACE, M., G. SINGER, M. J. WAYNER AND P. COOK. Adjunctive behavior in humans during game playing. PHYSIOL. BEHAV. 14(5) 651-654, 1975. -Seven non-psychology umversity students, 4 men and 3 women, who ranged m age from 18 to 25 years were paid to participate in this experiment. Subjects received instructions about the nature of slot machines, which combinations would pay off, and how to operate a computer console with a visual display and keyboard which simulated such a machine characteristic of private clubs and gambling casinos. The keyboard space bar was utilized as a manipulandum and subjects were studied on a variety of schedules. Both the appearance of a new poker card display and the payoffs were reinforcing. A comparison of baseline conditions composed of FI-5 sec and non-playing listening sessions with an FI-60 see schedule revealed considerable adjunctive behavior induced during the longer interval schedule. Various types of movements, playing, and bizarre behaviors are described. There were large variations in the types and frequencies of behaviors emitted by different individuals. Results are interpreted in terms of an increase in motor excitability which seems to occur in some individuals on certain schedules of reinforcement. Adjunctive behavior

Schedule induced behavior

Bizarrebehavior

SEVER AL intermittent schedules of food delivery to partially food deprived animals have been shown to induce a variety of behaviors such as excessive drinking [1,8], air licking [ 6 ], and wheel running [ 5 ]. These behaviors are not necessary to obtain food and because they appear as adjuncts to behavior under more direct control of the schedule have been called adjunctive behavior [2]. Observations o f this type of behavior have been confined generally to adjuncts of eating. Recently, however, nondeprived schizophrenic patients on a token e c o n o m y were shown to develop considerable adjunctive drinking and pacing when required to pull a cord for pennies on several intermittent schedules of reinforcement [4]. Normal children working for pennies on a continuous reinforcement schedule display considerable aggression during extinction [3] and the data support earlier notions that schedule induced aggression should be viewed as adjunctive behavior [2,7]. Also, nondeprived rats on fixed time nonresponse contingent wheel running schedules emit adjunctive licking, rearing and other types of behavior [9]. Since adjunctive behavior seems to arise from a nonspecific increase in m o t o r excitability [ I 0 , 1 1 ] , it is becoming more evident that certain kinds o f intermittent stimulation which result in an increase in neural excitability can induce adjunctive behavior.

Haying behavior

The purpose of the present experiment was to study adjunctive behavior in young human adults during game playing. The game was a computerized version of the poker machine or slot machine available in many private clubs and pubhc gambling casinos. The subject faced a cathode ray tube display console. Schedule dependent responding consisted of depressing the space bar on the console keyboard. Both the appearance of the display and the payoff were reinforcing. The type and magnitude of adjunctxve activities varied considerably within and between individuals and ranged from general inactivity and self directed behavior such as grooming, through eating and drinking and pacing, to animated play acting with intense vocahzation and m o t o r activity. Results demonstrate unequivocal increases in adjunctive behavior in some individuals under these experimental conditions.

METHOD

Sublects Seven non-psychology university students participated and were paid for their service. There were 4 men and 3 women who ranged in age from 18 to 25 years.

~Send reprint requests to M.J. Wayner, Brain Research Laboratory, Syracuse Umversity, 601 University Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13210. 2This research was carried out while M.J. Wayner was a Visiting Professor in the Psychology Department at La Trobe University. 651

652

Apparatus The game consisted of a Research Inc. Teleray 3300 computer console display and keyboard. The CAI Alpha• LS 12 computer was located in another part of the building. Pressing the space bar on the console produced: a three card display, for example AKQ; the amount won in dollars and cents, zero if no pay; and the cumulative total of winnings in dollars and cents. A short duration audible beep signalled the appearance of a new display. The computer was programmed so that a space bar press produced a display only after a preset time interval had elapsed. The interval could be changed from one test session to another but never varied within a session. Each display cost the subject five cents. Approximately 10 payoffs occurred within a test session and they were arranged in a nonsystematic order and paid from 15 cents to two dollars each. The computer recorded the number of bar presses and the delay between the end of the preset interval and the next bar press. The computer console was installed in a room 445 × 530 cm. The room had no windows and was furnished with 5 small tables, a vitreous porcelain marker board, a six cubic ft. refrigerator, and two empty packing cases. These items were arranged to limit the space available for walking to 220 X 275 cm. The computer console was on a table next to the refrigerator and in front of the vitreous porcelain marker board on which the payoffs for various combinations of the cards were listed. Other items in the room were an automatic sphygmomanometer and a tray containing a thermometer, tissues and antiseptic. Coca Cola, Cheezels and water were available. In one corner o f the room, just below the ceiling, a microphone and wide angle TV camera were mounted inconspicuously. The console area provided for pacing could thereby be monitored in a nearby office and a permanent record obtained of the subject's behavior on magnetic tape.

WALLACE, SINGER, WAYNER AND COOK test session began after the briefing and the blood pressure was measured and was terminated 30 min later when the experimenter appeared, measured the subject's blood pressure, and paid the subject its winnings. Subjects A, B and C were placed on an FI-5 sec schedule and a hstening session before beginning an FI-60 sec schedule session. One FI-5 sec session was included during the FI-60 sec sequence and the last two sessions were listening sessions. The exact sequence is presented from left to right in Fig. 1. These subjects had only water and no food available. Subjects D, E, F and G had between 5 and 7 sessions on a variety of schedules (FI-5, FI-15, FI-60 and FI-180 sec) during which they were permitted to sit. Following these test sessions, they were required to stand and were tested with FI-5 and FI-60 sec schedules as indicated in Fig. 2. Food and a soft drink were available to these subjects. Food and fluid intakes were determined for each session.

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Procedure Subjects were told that the experiment was concerned with the effects of slot machine gambling on blood pressure. Accordingly each test session began and ended with the determination of the subjects' blood pressure by means of the automatic sphygmomanometer. The information was not recorded. Subjects were tested one at a time and whenever possible at the same time each day. They were tested under one of three conditions in any test session" FI-5 sec, a 5 sec fixed interval reinforcement schedule; FI-60 sec, a 60 sec fixed interval reinforcement schedule; and a no play condition where the slot machine game was off and the subjects listened to a tape recording of a hvely discussion on crime and violence. Subjects were briefed about the apparent purpose of the experiment and were shown how to operate the console. Each display cost 5 cents and subjects began a session with $1.50 or $2.00. Subjects were shown the list of winning combinations and were told they could keep any money they won over the starting amount but did not have to pay if they lost. They were also paid $1 or $2 for attending each session. There were no chairs in the room and subjects were asked to stand during the session. The fact that a soft drink and food was available was mentioned casually during the initial briefing. The T.V. camera was pointed out to each subject and they were told that only the experimenters would observe. The

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FIG. 1. Bargraphs tUustratmg the total time utdlzed m seconds on the ordinate for either playing or moving by each subject, A, B, or C, on the FI-5 or FI-60 sec schedule or during listening, L, sessions. Subjects were exposed to the different conditions in the sequence indicated from left to right.

ADJUNCTIVE BEHAVIOR AND GAME PLAYING

PLAYING

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653 sec and listening sessions as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. In both figures the total time for each activity in seconds for each session for each subject is presented as a bargraph for each schedule and listening periods. Playing times are presented in the upper part of the figures and moving times in the lower part. Tapes for subject E were scored by two raters and in all cases there was agreement with respect to the profiles of scores. There was always considerably more playing or movmg during FI-60 sec sessions than occurred m the FI-5 see schedules. Although there was no consistent polydipsia or hyperphagia induced by the present fixed interval schedules, occasionally copious drinking occurred and large amounts of food were consumed. Several instances of other bizarre behaviors were observed such as blending Cheezels and Coca Cola and drinking the mixture, tearing scrap paper into hundreds of pieces and arranging them in symmetrical patterns, pressing the space bar with a bare foot, tossing Cheezels into a paper cup, vocalizations and play acting.

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FIG. 2. Same as Fig. 1 except for subjects D, E, F and G. Data for Subject G for the second FI-5 sec session was recorded for 15 rain only. The dotted line indicates an extrapolation to 30 mln.

Scoring o f T. V. Tapes Only one person scored all the video tapes. Reliability checks were carried out by other experimenters on other occasions. Two types of activity were scored. The first was gross body movements such as pacing, stretching, body rocking, and shifting weight from one foot to the other. The second was playing defined as digital movements such as finger and foot tapping, grooming, hand wringing, and paper tearing. The total time spent in each activity per session was measured using stop watches. RESULTS The data for all 7 subjects display an increase in activity for the FI-60 sec schedule sessions as compared to the FI-5

These results demonstrate that normal young human subjects when placed on fixed interval reinforcement schedules in a non-deprived condition emit a variety of behaviors, some of them bizarre, which reveal an underlying increase in neural excitability. However, the same schedules affect indivsduals differently and the data are variable. Although all showed a difference between baseline and FI-60 sec conditions, not all subjects displayed great activity. But this is the nature of adjunctive behavior, it is schedule dependent only within wide hmits, and it is contingent upon the response repertoire of the individual and the effectiveness of the stimulation produced by the moment a r y e n v i r o n m e n t a l conditions. On several occasions apparently normal young adults emitted obviously bxzarre behavior. All of these subjects were very responsive and were overtly interested in the experiment. It is interesting that the conditions which induced adjunctive aggression in children also produced crying in several individuals [3] which attests to the generality of the variability of scheduled induced behavior. One other important point should be emphasized. Many activities are incompatible and when a subject is pacing it is unlikely that the individual will be eating or drinking or playing with bits of paper. Consequently, if the occurrence of some particular behavior is high, the emission of many other responses will be low. That this cannot account for the general increase in moving and playing scores under FI-60 sec conditions is demonstrated by the data from listening sessions which were included to remove the possibility of competing responses on the FI-5 sec schedule. Adjunctive behavior is a complex function of the conditions which produce an increase in general motor excitability, the response repertoire of the individual composed of the probabilities that various stimuli will elicit certain responses, genetic factors which predetermine the potency of various stimuli, and the stimuli present in the individual environment [ 11 ].

REFERENCES 1. Falk, J. L. Production of polydipsla in normal rats by an intermittent food schedule. Science 133: 195-196, 1961.

2. Falk, J. L. The nature and determinants of adjunctive behavior. Physiol. 8ehav. 6: 577-588, 1971.

654 3. Frederiksen, L. W. and G. L. Peterson. Schedule-induced aggression m nursery school children. PsychoL Rec. 24: 343-351, 1974. 4. Kachanoff, R., R. Leveflle, J. P. McLeUand and M. J. Wayner. Schedule-induced behavior m humans. Physiol. Behav. 11: 395-398, 1973. 5. Levitsky, D. and G. Collier. Schedule-induced wheel running. Physiol. Behav. 3: 571-573, 1968. 6. Mendelson, J. and D. ChiUag. Schedule-induced air licking in rats. Physiol. Behav. 5: 535-537, 1970. 7. RiUmg, M. and H. J. Caplan. Extmction-mduced aggression during errorless discrimination learning. Z Exp. Analysis Behav. 20: 85-92, 1973.

WALLACE, SINGER, WAYNER AND COOK 8. Schuster, C. R. and J. H. Woods. Schedule-induced polydipsia in the monkey.Psychol. Rep. 19: 823-828, 1966. 9. Singer, G., M. J. Wayner, J. Stein, K. Cimino and K. King. Adjunctive behavior induced by wheel running. Physiol. Behav. 12: 493-495, 1974. 10. Wayner, M. J. Motor control functions of the lateral hypothalamus and adjunctive behaxaor. Physiol. Behav. 5: 1319-1325~ 1970. 11. Wayner, M. J. Specificity of behavaoral regulation. Phystol. Behav. 12: 851-869, 1974.

Adjunctive behavior in humans during game playing.

Physiology and Behavior, Vol. 14, pp. 651--654. Brain Research Pubhcations Inc., 1975. Printed m the U.S.A. BRIEF COMMUNICATION Adjunctive Behavior i...
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