Peak versus Mean Amount of Reinforcement in Operant Conditioning with Children

Abstract

Four variable-amount reinforcement schedules were used with 120 6-, 7-, and 8-yr.-old children. These schedules constituted one of the factors in a three-factor analysis of covariance design, with S's age and sex being the second and third factors, respectively. Each S was run for a single session consisting of 3 components: (a) 3 min. of baseline, (b) 36 reinforcements under one of the four schedules, and (c) 10 min. of extinction. Frequency of lever pulls was the dependent variable, and marbles were used as reinforcers. There were reliable (P < 0.05) acquisition effects across groups but not between groups. Extinction was slow to occur for the across-groups data. There were no main treatment effects for the between-groups extinction data, but a significant (p < 0.01) interaction was obtained between schedules and sex of Ss.

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