University of Mississippi
Hailey Stephens is a doctoral student in Experimental Psychology at the University of Mississippi working under the mentorship of Anna Kate Edgemon, PhD, BCBA-D. Her research examines motivating operations, schedules of covariation, behavioral economics, and translational methods for studying continuous human behavior-environment relations.
The SABA Innovative Student Researcher Grant will support Stephens's master's thesis, Motivational Operations and Music Deprivation: A Translational Study of Auditory Reinforcement. Although motivating operations have been studied extensively in discrete response-reinforcer arrangements, little research has examined how they operate under schedules of covariation, in which ongoing responding continuously alters some dimension of reinforcement. This gap matters because many naturally occurring behaviors, including adjusting music volume, controlling grip force, and modulating speech, unfold through continuous relations rather than discrete response units.
To address this gap, Stephens will evaluate how short-term music deprivation affects reinforcer value using two complementary measures. Participants will complete a conjugate schedule task in which force exerted on a calibrated hand dynamometer controls music volume, providing a continuous measure of effort allocation for auditory reinforcement. Participants will also complete a behavioral economics music-purchasing task to assess demand as costs increase. By integrating response-force data with demand-curve analyses, the project will evaluate whether deprivation systematically changes motivation for music and whether these measures provide convergent evidence of motivating-operation effects on reinforcer value.
This work extends the conceptual analysis of motivating operations beyond traditional discrete schedules and contributes to translational research on schedules of covariation. Findings may strengthen understanding of how motivational variables influence behavior in dynamic environments and support future research on continuous behavior-environment interactions in basic and applied settings. SABA funding will provide the resources necessary to implement and evaluate this innovative translational research project. The grant will directly support the specialized equipment needed to implement the conjugate arrangement, collect response-force data, and establish a reusable methodological platform for Stephens's ongoing program of research.
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