Partial primary reinforcement as a parameter of secondary reinforcement

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe problem of this paper is to investigate partial primary reinforcement as a possible parameter of secondary reinforcement. Although partial primary reinforcement is known to be important in many learning situations, there appears to be little systematic knowledge of its relationship to secondary reinforcement. An experiment was performed in which (1) a neutral stimulus was present on every training trial, (2) a primary reinforcer was present on only some of these trials, (3) after training was completed, a test was made for the secondary reinforcing properties of the neutral stimulus. Six independent groups of albino rats were trained in a simple runway with food as the primary reinforcer and goal box brightness as the neutral stimulus. Each group received a different number of primary reinforcements, namely, 100%, 90%, 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20%, out of one-hundred-twenty training trials. Half of the subjects were trained on a white goal box and half on a black goal box. When training was completed, the alleyway was converted to a T maze with black and white goal boxes. Neither goal box was visible to the subjects until after entrance. The animals were given twenty trials in the T maze, and the number of times they entered each goal box was tabulated. Analysis of the data revealed that the lower the percentage of reinforcement given during training, the greater were the number of entries into the training box during the test. Some characteristics of the function were: between 100% and 90% the strength of secondary reinforcement did not increase, between 90% and 80% there was a large increase, from 80% to 40% there was a further increase, and from 40% to 20% there was some decrease. It was also revealed that some subjects in the lower percentage of reinforcement groups went either to the training box or to the novel box on every test trial. Other aspects of the data were also analyzed. From this data a number of conclusions were drawn: 1. Partial primary reinforcement is a parameter of secondary reinforcement. Decrease in partial reinforcement results in an increase in secondary reinforcement various characteristics of this relationship were discussed. It was pointed out that the obtained function might be derived from two separate functions: the relationship of secondary reinforcement to the number of reinforced trials, and the relationship of secondary reinforcement to the number of non-reinforced trials. 2. The fact that some subjects went to the same box on every test trial was explained in terms of the development of strong secondary reinforcement, in the case of subjects who went to the training box, and in terms of the development of strong generalized secondary reinforcement, in the case of subjects who went to the novel box. 3. It has often been reported in the experimental literature that partially reinforced subjects show greater resistance to extinction than continuously reinforced subjects. Our findings can be applied to this phenomenon. Stimuli present during partial reinforcement are apt to acquire greater secondary reinforcing properties than those present during continuous reinforcement, and, hence, the presence of the former during extinction are able to maintain a higher frequency of responding than the presence of the latter. This hypothesis was distinguished from others offered in the literature which purport to explain the greater resistance to extinction in terms of secondary reinforcement. 4. It was pointed out that this experiment revealed a significant variable, secondary reinforcement, which might develop in studies whose training set up resembles ours. 5. Minor findings of the experiment were discussed

Google Apps for Education: Valparaiso University\u27s Migration Experience

Many campuses are investigating cloud-based or hosted email solutions. This paper will cover Valparaiso University’s decision to move to the Google Apps for Education platform and our campus migration strategy. Google Apps offers significant savings in both cost of service and cost of support / maintenance while simultaneously offering functionality improvements to the campus experience over our previous system. Valparaiso University was using the GroupWise email and calendaring system and began the process of migrating all of campus to the Google Apps for Education platform in early 2011. Our process began with a student led evaluation team to select the new platform and started rolling out to new students beginning summer of 2011 with migration of existing students conducted from July 2011 through October 2011. Faculty / Staff migration began in December 2011 and were rolled out on a department by department basis throughout the spring 2012 Semester. Heavy promotion and utilization of multiple “Meet Google Apps” presentations greatly enhanced communication about the process and reduced migration anxiety. Apps were limited during migration process to those that reproduced existing system functionality to avoid over-taxing IT support resources. Valparaiso University’s migration process has been refined several times and overall feedback from students, faculty, and staff has been very positive throughout the process

Discovery of kHz Fluctuations in Centaurus X-3: Evidence for Photon Bubble Oscillations (PBO) and Turbulence in a High Mass X-ray Binary Pulsar

We report the discovery of kHz fluctuations, including quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) at ~330 Hz and ~760 Hz and a broadband kHz continuum in the power density spectrum of the high mass X-ray binary pulsar Centaurus X-3. These observations of Cen X-3 were carried out with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The fluctuation spectrum is flat from mHz to a few Hz, then steepens to $f^{-2}$ behavior between a few Hz and ~100 Hz. Above a hundred Hz, the spectrum shows the QPO features, plus a flat continuum extending to ~1200 Hz and then falling out to ~1800 Hz. These results, which required the co-adding three days of observations of Cen X-3, are at least as fast as the fastest known variations in X-ray emission from an accreting compact object (kHz QPO in LMXB sources) and probably faster since extension to ~1800 Hz is indicated by the most likely parameterization of the data. Multi-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations of optically thick plasma flow onto the magnetic poles of an accreting neutron star show that the fluctuations at frequencies above 100 Hz are consistent with photon bubble turbulence and oscillations (PBO) previously predicted to be observable in this source. For a polar cap opening angle of 0.25 radians, we show that the spectral form above 100 Hz is reproduced by the simulations, including the frequencies of the QPO and the relative power in the QPO and the kHz continuum. This has resulted in the first model-dependent measurement of the polar cap size of an X-ray pulsar.Comment: received ApJ: April 1, 1999 accepted ApJ: September 1, 199

Transgresiones. Crítica inmanente y trascendental. El difícil presente de la filosofía de la música de Adorno

Publicado originalmente en VV. AA., Adorno in Widerstret. Zur Präsenz seines Denkens, Friburgo/Múnich, Alber, 2004. Traducción de Marina Hervás Muño