Eight female high school students solved inductive reasoning problems under two different types of experimental conditions, with or without knowledge of results and with positive or negative reinforcement. The data lend support to the hypothesis that incidence of errors is greater under no knowledge of results conditions and that the effect is more noticeable with difficult items than with easy ones. Response time was not affected by the knowledge of results conditions. Difficulties encountered in manipulating negative reinforcement (because Ss made fewer errors than had been anticipated) prohibited testing of the positive/negative reinforcement hypothesis as originally planned.
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