EFFECTS OF PAIRING STIMULI WITH REINFORCEMENT ON MULTIPLE SCHEDULE PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN

Abstract

A nonsense word was paired with reinforcement to determine if pairing affected emission of a response that produced the word in the signalled absence of reinforcement. Children were trained on a multiple schedule that consisted of a reinforcement component, conditioned reinforcement component, and control component, each set of contingencies being signalled by a different colored light. In the primary reinforcement component, lever presses produced reinforcers which, in some phases, were paired with a word. In the other two components, lever presses were not reinforced and a button was made accessible. Button presses in the conditioned reinforcement component produced the word to be (or being) paired, e.g. , “yafeh”, while button presses in the control component produced another word, e.g. , “grunch”. Button pressing increased when one of the words was being paired and decreased when pairing was discontinued, but directly related rate changes occurred also in the control component. The order of components was shown to be a contributing variable.