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Abstract

Social approval and correctness reinforcement were compared, with a noncontingent reinforcement control group. Extinction trials were conducted either by the same E or by a different E. 5 Es, randomly selected from 10 available, generally were assigned 2 Ss in each of the resulting 6 conditions. The two types of reinforcement appeared to be equally effective with respect to effects on verbal operant conditioning (p < .001), but social approval resulted in less generality than reinforcement for being correct. Ss receiving social approval exhibited significantly more rapid extinction in an altered stimulus situation with a different E (p < .05). As social approval typically has been used, these results suggest why numerous previous verbal conditioning studies have failed to yield generalizable effects.

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Type of Reinforcement and Generality in Verbal Operant Conditioning

Abstract

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