Robert C Bolles
Biographic Data
| ID | 272058 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robert C Bolles |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robert C |
| FAMILY NAME | Bolles |
| SIGNATURE | BOLLES R C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hollins College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 29 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1957 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Away with rat chow
The Hypoglycemia-Aggression Hypothesis
In a critical evaluation of work by Ralph Bolton on the relationship between hypoglycemia and aggression among the Qolla of Peru, Ted Lewellen has argued that the Qolla are not highly aggressive, that they have been the victims of pseudoscientific stereotyping and prejudice, that they are not especially prone to problems in glucose homeostasis, and that whatever aggression they display can be explained in large part by their consumption of alcoho…
Random sample consensus
A new paradigm, Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC), for fitting a model to experimental data is introduced. RANSAC is capable of interpreting/smoothing data containing a significant percentage of gross errors, and is thus ideally suited for applications in automated image analysis where interpretation is based on the data provided by error-prone feature detectors. A major portion of this paper describes the application of RANSAC to the Location Det…
Stress-induced Overeating? A response to Robbins and Fray
Historical note on the term “appetite”
Avoidance Learning as a Function of CS Quality and CS Termination on Escape Trials
Rats were trained in a shuttle box with 1 of 5 CSs and with either immediate or delayed CS termination on escape trials. An avoidance response always produced immediate CS termination. Differences among CSs were found, but with all CSs there was a decrement under the delay condition. This decrement is explained on the basis that CS termination serves as a reinforcing safety signal, and the safety signal is more effective when it is response conti…
Autonomic Indices of Fear
The attempts to assess the role of fear in avoidance learning by measuring the rat's skin resistance do not seem to have met with much success. Perhaps the reason is that our conceptions of fear and its role are inadequate
Relationship between Activity Level and Body Temperature in the Rat
Body temperature was monitored continuously while the behavior in the living cage was either sampled across time or also continuously recorded. Although a significant correlation was found between activity level and temperature, this relationship was weak and had no consistent temporal dependency. Both activity level and temperature appear to depend primarily upon time of day
The Syntax of the Mind
Those who would introduce mentalistic terms into the explanation of behavior need to recognize both the syntactical and the semantic problems involved in such explanations. To be fruitful, any set of explanatory terms must have both a grammar and a lexicon for their proper use. If a theorist emphasizes semantics at the expense of syntax, then his explanatory terms cannot contribute substantially to any explanation for which they might be invoked,…
Effects of Delayed UCS Termination on Classical Avoidance Learning of the Bar-Press Response
83 Ss were run in two experiments involving delay of shock termination. In the first, shock was terminated a brief interval after a shock-escape response, while in the second, only responses occurring a brief interval after shock onset were effective in terminating it. Although both procedures were designed to facilitate avoidance acquisition by minimizing freezing behavior, in both cases the use of delay led to decrements in acquisition
Effect of UCS Duration on Classical Avoidance Learning of the Bar-Press Response
It was found that rats perform better in a classical avoidance situation when the maximum duration of the UCS on no-response trials is long than when it is short. Although this effect was significant, it cannot account for the generally poor performance obtained. A competing response interpretation is proposed
The Statistician's Role
A Failure to Find Evidence of the Estrus Cycle in the Rat's Activity Level
maintained on nd lib. food and water. Ss were observed for two weeks every evening from about 7:30 to 1:00 using a time sampling procedure (Bolles, 1960) that yielded 96 observations of each S each evening. All behavior was classified as sleeping, lying, grooming, sniffing, eating, drinking, locomotion, rearing, or manipulating objects. Additionally, the classical estrus signs, lordosis, ear twitching, etc. were watched for, but were never observ…
Psychological Determinism and the Problem of Morality
ACCORDING to the traditional view of man, what distinguishes him from animals is his freedom to choose between one course of action and another, his freedom to seek good and avoid evil. The animal has no freedom, but is determined by physical and biological laws; like a machine, the animal responds whenever the appropriate stimulus is present. But because man has free will, we cannot hope to explain his behavior merely in terms of causes. Man can…
Effect of Hunger on Exploration in a Familiar Locale
The Difference between Statistical Hypotheses and Scientific Hypotheses
When a professional stacistician runs a statistical test he is usually concerned only with the mathematical properties of certain sets of numbers, but when a scientist runs a stztistical test he is usually crying to understand some namral phenomenon. The hypotheses the statistician tests exist in a world of black and white, where the alternatives are clear, simple, and few in number, whereas the scientist works in a vast gray area in which the al…
Effect of Hunger on Exploration in a Familiar Locale
Fehrer ( 1956) has advanced the interesting hypothesis that hunger increases exploratory behavior in the sense that hungry animals are more apt than sated ones to leave a familiar foodless territory ( p . 552) . Her findings, confirming this hypothesis, have become increasingly important in recent years because of the continued empirical disagreement about whether hunger Facilitates exploration in a novel siruarion; some studies have yielded posi…
The Difference Between Statistical Hypotheses and Scientific Hypotheses
Generalization of Deprivation-Produced Stimuli
Generalization of Deprivation-Produced Stimuli
Effects of Food Deprivation on Exploratory Behavior in a Novel Situation
Some Asymmetrical Drive Summation Phenomena
Some Asymmetrical Drive Summation Phenomena
There have been a number of studies of the effect of an irrelevant thirst drive upon the performance of hungry rats (Kendler, 1945; Siegel, 1946; Kendler & Law, 1950; Danziger, 1953; Levine, 1956). In each case it was reported that a high irrelevant thirst is detrimental to food-relevant performance. (The thirst is said to be irrelevant because no water was present in the experimental situation.) In the Kendler and Law and the Levine studies, com…
Statistical Utility in Experimental Inference
Statistical Utility and Components of Variance
The Hypoglycemia-Aggression Hypothesis
In a critical evaluation of work by Ralph Bolton on the relationship between hypoglycemia and aggression among the Qolla of Peru, Ted Lewellen has argued that the Qolla are not highly aggressive, that they have been the victims of pseudoscientific stereotyping and prejudice, that they are not especially prone to problems in glucose homeostasis, and that whatever aggression they display can be explained in large part by their consumption of alcoho…
Historical note on the term “appetite”
Away with rat chow
Psychological Determinism and the Problem of Morality
ACCORDING to the traditional view of man, what distinguishes him from animals is his freedom to choose between one course of action and another, his freedom to seek good and avoid evil. The animal has no freedom, but is determined by physical and biological laws; like a machine, the animal responds whenever the appropriate stimulus is present. But because man has free will, we cannot hope to explain his behavior merely in terms of causes. Man can…
Occam's Razor and the Science of Behavior
Occam's Razor and the Science of Behavior
Statistical Utility in Experimental Inference
Statistical Utility and Components of Variance
Statistical Utility and Components of Variance
Statistical Utility in Experimental Inference
Some Asymmetrical Drive Summation Phenomena
Some Asymmetrical Drive Summation Phenomena
There have been a number of studies of the effect of an irrelevant thirst drive upon the performance of hungry rats (Kendler, 1945; Siegel, 1946; Kendler & Law, 1950; Danziger, 1953; Levine, 1956). In each case it was reported that a high irrelevant thirst is detrimental to food-relevant performance. (The thirst is said to be irrelevant because no water was present in the experimental situation.) In the Kendler and Law and the Levine studies, com…
Generalization of Deprivation-Produced Stimuli
Generalization of Deprivation-Produced Stimuli
Effects of Food Deprivation on Exploratory Behavior in a Novel Situation
Effect of Hunger on Exploration in a Familiar Locale
The Difference between Statistical Hypotheses and Scientific Hypotheses
When a professional stacistician runs a statistical test he is usually concerned only with the mathematical properties of certain sets of numbers, but when a scientist runs a stztistical test he is usually crying to understand some namral phenomenon. The hypotheses the statistician tests exist in a world of black and white, where the alternatives are clear, simple, and few in number, whereas the scientist works in a vast gray area in which the al…
Effect of Hunger on Exploration in a Familiar Locale
Fehrer ( 1956) has advanced the interesting hypothesis that hunger increases exploratory behavior in the sense that hungry animals are more apt than sated ones to leave a familiar foodless territory ( p . 552) . Her findings, confirming this hypothesis, have become increasingly important in recent years because of the continued empirical disagreement about whether hunger Facilitates exploration in a novel siruarion; some studies have yielded posi…
The Difference Between Statistical Hypotheses and Scientific Hypotheses
The Statistician's Role
A Failure to Find Evidence of the Estrus Cycle in the Rat's Activity Level
maintained on nd lib. food and water. Ss were observed for two weeks every evening from about 7:30 to 1:00 using a time sampling procedure (Bolles, 1960) that yielded 96 observations of each S each evening. All behavior was classified as sleeping, lying, grooming, sniffing, eating, drinking, locomotion, rearing, or manipulating objects. Additionally, the classical estrus signs, lordosis, ear twitching, etc. were watched for, but were never observ…
Psychological Determinism and the Problem of Morality
ACCORDING to the traditional view of man, what distinguishes him from animals is his freedom to choose between one course of action and another, his freedom to seek good and avoid evil. The animal has no freedom, but is determined by physical and biological laws; like a machine, the animal responds whenever the appropriate stimulus is present. But because man has free will, we cannot hope to explain his behavior merely in terms of causes. Man can…
Effect of UCS Duration on Classical Avoidance Learning of the Bar-Press Response
It was found that rats perform better in a classical avoidance situation when the maximum duration of the UCS on no-response trials is long than when it is short. Although this effect was significant, it cannot account for the generally poor performance obtained. A competing response interpretation is proposed
Effects of Delayed UCS Termination on Classical Avoidance Learning of the Bar-Press Response
83 Ss were run in two experiments involving delay of shock termination. In the first, shock was terminated a brief interval after a shock-escape response, while in the second, only responses occurring a brief interval after shock onset were effective in terminating it. Although both procedures were designed to facilitate avoidance acquisition by minimizing freezing behavior, in both cases the use of delay led to decrements in acquisition
The Syntax of the Mind
Those who would introduce mentalistic terms into the explanation of behavior need to recognize both the syntactical and the semantic problems involved in such explanations. To be fruitful, any set of explanatory terms must have both a grammar and a lexicon for their proper use. If a theorist emphasizes semantics at the expense of syntax, then his explanatory terms cannot contribute substantially to any explanation for which they might be invoked,…
Autonomic Indices of Fear
The attempts to assess the role of fear in avoidance learning by measuring the rat's skin resistance do not seem to have met with much success. Perhaps the reason is that our conceptions of fear and its role are inadequate
Relationship between Activity Level and Body Temperature in the Rat
Body temperature was monitored continuously while the behavior in the living cage was either sampled across time or also continuously recorded. Although a significant correlation was found between activity level and temperature, this relationship was weak and had no consistent temporal dependency. Both activity level and temperature appear to depend primarily upon time of day
Avoidance Learning as a Function of CS Quality and CS Termination on Escape Trials
Rats were trained in a shuttle box with 1 of 5 CSs and with either immediate or delayed CS termination on escape trials. An avoidance response always produced immediate CS termination. Differences among CSs were found, but with all CSs there was a decrement under the delay condition. This decrement is explained on the basis that CS termination serves as a reinforcing safety signal, and the safety signal is more effective when it is response conti…
Stress-induced Overeating? A response to Robbins and Fray
Psychology (28 works) · Cognitive psychology (13 works) · Mathematics (13 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Medicine (9 works) · Statistics (9 works) · Philosophy (7 works)