Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

A JOURNAL primarily for the original publication of experiments relevant to the behavior of individual organisms. Review articles and theoretical papers will occasionally be invited.

BOARD OF EDITORS C. B. FERSTER, Indiana University Medical Center, EXECUTIVE EDITOR; D. G. ANGER, Upjohn Co., APPARATUS EDITOR; J. E. ANLIKER, Harvard Medical School; N. H. AZRIN, Anna State Hospital; D. S. BLOUGH, Brown University; J. J. BOREN, Merck Institute; J. V. BRADY, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; P. B. DEWS, Harvard Medical School; R. J. HERRNSTEIN, Harvard University; F. S. KELLER, Columbia University; 0. R. LINDSLEY, Harvard Medical School, SECRETARY-TREASURER; W. H. MORSE, Harvard Medical School; W. N. SCHOENFELD, Columbia University; M. SIDMAN, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; B. F. SKINNER, Harvard University; T. VERHAVE, Eli Lilly Co. STAFF: MARILYN FERSTER, Assistant editor; SERENA SCHOENFELD, Production consultant; LEmrY KENNEDY, Assistant to the Secretary-Treasurer. This Journal is published quarterly by the Society for the ExperimentalAnalysis of Behavior, Inc. The subscription rate per annual volume' is $12.00; for A.P.A. members, $9.50; for students, $4.50 (beginning with Volume 2, student subscriptions will be $6.50 to conform with postal regulations on second-class mailing privileges). The price of a single issue is $3.00; orders for less than a full volume will be charged at the single-copy rate. Claims for missing numbers must be made promptly, and will be met only when loss has occurred in the mails and so long as reserve inventory permits. Authors will be required to order a minimum of 100 reprints (charge: $3.00 per Journal page); additional reprints, to a total of 500, may be ordered at the same rate. Reprints cannot be supplied for papers and technical notes one page or less in length. Manuscripts should be submitted to the Executive Editor, C. B. Ferster, Institute of Psychiatric Research, Indiana University Medical Center, 1100 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis 7, Indiana. Apparatus notes are submitted directly to the Apparatus Editor, D. G. Anger, The Upjohn Co., Kalamazoo, Michigan. Subscriptions, changes of address, and other business correspondence should be addressed to the Secretary-Treasurer, 0. R. Lindsley, Behavior Research Laboratory, Metropolitan State Hospital, Trapelo Road, Waltham, Massachusetts. Checks should be made payable to the Journal. INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS In preparing manuscripts, contributors will follow the usage concerning references, figure and table legends, footnotes, abbreviations, etc., outlined in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 1957 revision. Manuscripts should be submitted in duplicate, the author retaining a third copy. Figures are to be supplied by the author in a form suitable for photographic reproduction: halftone illustrations as glossy prints, line drawings in black ink on a smooth surface paper. A single figure intended to fill a whole Journal page cannot be printed larger than 5.5 x 8.5 inches (including legends and titles); these same dimensions serve as guides in cases where two or more figures appear together on a single printed page. Tabular matter, when submitted as photocopy or suitable as such, will follow these same rules of size; when necessary, the Journal will prepare its own photocopy of tabular matter. Figures and illustrations should be made as small as possible, consistent with their puroose and importance.
Copyright 1958 by the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Inc. Reproduction for scientific and scholarly purposes of any material published in the Journal will be permitted following receipt of written request.

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

BOARD OF EDITORS C. B. FERSTER, Indiana University Medical Center, EXECUTIVE EDITOR; D. G. ANGER, Upjohn Co., APPARATUS EDITOR; J. E. ANLIKER, Harvard Medical School; N. H. AZRIN, Anna State Hospital; D. S. BLOUGH, Brown University; J. J. BOREN, Merck Institute; J. V. BRADY, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; P. B. DEWS, Harvard Medical School; R. J. HERRNSTEIN, Harvard University; F. S. KELLER, Columbia University; 0. R. LINDSLEY, Harvard Medical School, SECRETARY-TREASURER; W. H. MORSE, Harvard Medical School; W. N. SCHOENFELD, Columbia University; T. VERHAVE, Eli Lilly

Co.

STAFF: MARILYN FERSTER, Asslstant editor; SERENA

SCHOENFELD, Production con-

sultant; LETTY KENNEDY, Assistant to the Secretary-Treasurer.

Volume 1, 1958
Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Inc. Copyright 1958 by the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

BACK-PATH PREVENTION In wiring relay circuits with snap leads, a "back path" is sometimes overlooked, which gives trouble by operating several parallel relays where only one relay should be operated. An inexpensive and simple solution to this problem is to isolate the troubleSW. A some back path with a germanium diode which allows the D.C. current to flow only in the proper direction. In the circuit illustrated be+ low, Switch A will operate both relays, but + Switch B will operate only Relay 2 because of the blocking diode. For 24 volts D.C., I have SW B found the' GE IN91 diode (costing about 80 cents) to be satisfactory. A convenient way to mount the diode is in the center of a color2 J coded snap lead. To prevent breaking the diode + terminals by flexion and also to provide insulation, the diode is pushed into a small section of plastic tubing and secured with tape. JOHN J. BOREN
MERCK INSTITUTE FOR THERAPEUTIC RESEARCH

A STANDARD "CANDY" FOR RESEARCH WITH CHILDREN

The Kirkman Pharmacal Company, Seattle, Washington, in cooperation with us, has worked out a kind of candy that has been found to be well-suited for laboratory experimental work with children. We have been using them mixed with trinkets, cereal, and cookies. They are elliptical in shape, weigh 0.31 gram, and come in four colors and flavors (orange, lime, lemon, and raspberry). They are sweet, but do not contain sugar, and they melt rapidly in the mouth. The Kirkman Pharmacal Company is prepared to fill orders. SIDNEY W. BiJou
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

314

ARC SUPPRESSION

Interruption of current to inductive coils (such as are found in counters, solenoids, and relays) produces a high surge voltage which may eventually damage the switching contacts by arcing. Devices commonly used for suppressing the arc in D. C. circuits include a diode (or rectifier) across the coil or a resistor-capacitor combination across the arcing contacts. I have found two other components which are also useful. A neon lamp (such as the NE-2 costing about 12 cents) connected across a relay coil was very adequate, although it will not quench the arc from a highly inductive counter or stepping relay. Since the maintaining voltage for the lamp is 59 volts, this component cannot be used where the coil operating voltage is greater than about 48 volts. (In my tests, I used 24 volts D. C.) A varistor (such as the GE 8386118G2 for 24 volts, cost is about 70 cents) was quite effective even across highly inductive coils. In case the coil is operated at high rates, however, the varistor can heat up and change its operating characteristics. Apparatus Editor Comment: See also another apparatus note in this issue on spark suppression. We have been testing varistors and confirm the above observation that the Thyrite varistor No. 8386118G2 (obtained from General Electric Co., Edmore, Michigan) does an excellent job of suppressing sparks on 24-volt D.C. relays. It does not appreciably slow the release of low inductance (fast release) relays, though it may slow down slightly the release of high inductance (slower release) relays. It did not overheat at 12 operations per second when across a relay or counter coil with a resistance of 100 ohms or more, hence these varistors seem adequate for all except unusual relay functions. The manufacturer states that as long as the wax coating on these units does not melt, they are not being overloaded. The price of the GE 8386118G2 is 55 cents in quantities of 25 to 99, 45 cents in quantities of 100 to 499. The varistors supplied by the Automatic Electric Sales Corp. for their stepping switches (RY-56 for 24 volts D.C., cost about 90 cents) does an excellent job of suppressing sparks on their Type 44 and 45 stepping switches with only a slight effect on the release time of the stepping switch.
JOHN J. BOREN
MERCK INSTITUTE FOR THERAPEUTIC RESEARCH

340

SPARK SUPPRESSION

The spark suppression provided by the NE2 neon glow lamp is very good, as good as can be obtained with a capacitor-resistor combination. We tested the life of 12 of these lamps by connecting each across the coil of a 300-ohm relay, and operating the 12 relay-lamp combinations with 24 volts DC. A microswitch operated relay No. 1, a contact on relay No. 1 operated relay No. 2, etc., so the relays were not in parallel. The microswitch was operated 9 times per second by a motordriven cam for 2,000,000 operations. After about 1,500,000 operations three of the lamps failed to provide any detectable suppression. This failure was indicated by greatly reduced light emission at the time of the spark. The lamps "fail safe," i.e., the ineffective lamps had a very high resistance. The lamps that did not fail continued to suppress as well as at the start. The light produced by the glow lamp when suppressing a spark was much brighter than the light produced in its rated application. A 100,000-ohm resistor in series with the glow lamp reduced the glow to normal, but then spark suppression was poor. The blackening of the lamps, which occurred for all lamps at about 1,500,000 operations, did not change their value as a spark suppressor. Due to their low cost (about 10 cents each), and the ease of installation or replacement, we feel these lamps are useful for spark suppression. Twelve varistors, General Electric No. 8386118G2, were tested in the same manner, connected across relay coils for 2,000,000 pulses. These units gave very good spark suppression. One varistor failed, but apparently it was defective at the start, and could have been detected before installation. A spark was present on the edge of this defective varistor during the first pulses and after 100 pulses a very high resistance developed. The remaining varistors showed no change in sparksuppressing ability throughout the test. Apparatus Editor Comment: See also another apparatus note in this issue on spark suppression.
MARSHALL G. POWELL
FORINGER AND CO., INC.

370

INDIVIDUAL LEARNING CURVES

Graphical presentation of the error characteristics of individual subjects may be useful in the preliminary stages of analysis, since it permits rapid inspection of the performance of each S. The essential aspect of the graphical representation of such individual data is that the errors (or successes) be represented in cumulative form. Such curves may be used to relate the time characteristics of a response with the error characteristics; and they may be of value in undergraduate laboratory courses, where the students usually do not have the benefit of data from many Ss. As an example, Fig. 1 presents the cumulative number of errors plotted as a function of trials for an individual rat in a discrimination task in a T-maze. The error score of this subject showed no indication that it was responding to the discrimination cue during the first 47 trials, but after that it made only one error. The same method of graphic representation may be applied to avoidance learning in a shuttlebox situation, conditioning of the eyelid reflex, etc.

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,0

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60

60

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R.M CUC
R. M. CHURCH
BROWN UNIVERSITY

Figure 1. Discrimination learning of a single rat in a T-maze.

380

Journal of the EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR

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DR. 0. R. LINDSLEY

Behavior Research Laboratory Metropolitan State Hospital Trapelo Road Waltham 54, Massachusetts
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Conference on the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

The 1959 CEAB will be held during the convention of the American Psychological Association at Cincinnati. The specific time and place will be announced in both the July issue of the American Psychologist and the next issue of this Journal. The Conference will have two sessions, centered on the following topics: Session 1: a) Interaction among concurrent operants. b) Interaction among components of multiple schedules. Session 2: c) Topics open. Researchers wishing to present data are invited to write the program chairman, specifying the nature of the data and the approximate amount of time desired (15 minutes maximum). Selections will be indicated by the chairman about July 1 'K Program committee: J. J. Boren W. H. Morse T. Verhave, Chairman The Lilly Research Laboratories 731 South Alabamna Street Indianapolis 6. Indiana