Schaeffer (1967) and Wasik (1967) attempted to test the applicability of the Premack principle to response chains and concluded that some modification of the principle was necessary in order to apply to chains involving. more than a single contingency. This conclusion was challenged by the present experiment in which it was shown that the response probabilities of reinforcement schedules are altered by being placed within a chain. Taking this into consideration, it was found that it was unnecessary to alter the Premack principle even in the case of multiple-contingency chains.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
HullC.Principles of behavior. New York: Appleton, 1943.
PremackD.Reinforcement theory. In LevineD. (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Lincoln: Univer. of Nebraska Press, 1965. Pp. 121–178.
4.
SchaefferR.Positive reinforcement: An extension of the Premack principle to response chains. Psychonomic Science, 1967, 8, 31–32.
5.
WasikB.Testing the applicability of Premack's generalizations of reinforcement to human lever-pressing behavior. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida State Univer., 1967.
