Group modification of affective verbailzations: resistance to extinction and generalization effects

An operant group procedure significantly increased the frequency of here-and-now affect, feedback, and empathy statements made by two groups of four subjects during ten one-hour sessions, divided into base line, acquisition, extinction, reacquisition and generalization periods. The continously reinforced group showed resistance to extinction, attributed in part to reinforcement by other group members when a subject made reinforceable statements. Failure of the variably reinforced group to replicate this finding was attributed in part to a less adequate conceptual grasp of the reinforcement categories resulting from the reduced feedback associated with a variable ratio schedule. Both groups showed strong generalization effects when subjects were distributed among eight new groups and the new groups and the new subjects' performance was also significantly higher than typical base levels.