This experiment extended an earlier study in which a buzzer sound was combined in pretraining with “Right” or “Wrong.” A two-choice discrimination learning task was presented immediately following the pretraining. Children learned that the buzz had meaning (in a direction opposite the verbal statement with which it was combined). In the present experiment, Nothing (N, E's silence) wa5 examined instead of the buzz. The data indicated that Nothing, when combined with “Right” (R) or “Wrong” (W) in the verbal reinforcement combinations NW and RN, also acquired reinforcement value opposite that of the verbal statement.
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