Effects of Amount of Reinforcement on the Concurrent Performance of Retardates

Abstract

The effect of amount of reinforcement on the performance of 20 mildly and moderately mentally retarded children during acquisition and extinction was studied. In Phase I Ss were trained to operate under a concurrent performance schedule with two manipulanda and tokens were established as reinforcers by pairing them with pennies. In Phase II the initial baseline for an equal amount of reinforcement (three tokens) in both manipulanda was established. During Phase III the amount of reinforcement was shifted to five tokens per reinforcement on one manipulandum and to one token on the other manipulandum. Phase IV provided extinction. A significant relationship was obtained between the amount of reinforcement and performance during both acquisition and extinction. The concurrent performance procedure was a sensitive measure of the effects of amount of reinforcement in maintaining Ss' performance. Thus, a change in the amount of reinforcement will exercise a differential effect on over-all response rate when an alternative incompatible response is available.