Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Collecting Sleep, Circadian, Fatigue, and Performance Data in Complex Operational Environments
Published on: August 8, 2019
Interaction of procedural factors in human performance on yoked schedules
C P Raia1, S W Shillingford, H L Miller
1Brigham Young University, USA. cpraia@aol.com
Abstract:
The differential effects of reinforcement contingencies and contextual variables on human performance were investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, adult human subjects operated a joystick in a video game in which the destruction of targets was arranged according to a yoked variable-ratio variable-interval schedule of reinforcement. Three variables were examined across 12 conditions: verbal instructions, shaping, and the use of a consummatory response following reinforcement (i.e., depositing a coin into a bank). Behavior was most responsive to the reinforcement contingencies when the consummatory response was available, responding was established by shaping, and subjects received minimal verbal instructions about their task. The responsiveness of variable-interval subjects' behavior varied more than that of variable-ratio subjects when these contextual factors were altered. Experiment 2 examined resistance to instructional control under the same yoked-schedules design. Conditions varied in terms of the validity of instructions. Performance on variable-ratio schedules was more resistant to instructional control than that on variable-interval schedules.
Related Concept Videos
Social Facilitation
Social Loafing
Reinforcement Schedules
Once a behavior is learned,...
Optimal Arousal Theory
Inverted U-Shaped Performance Curve
The...
Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior
Theory of Attribution II: Kelley's Covariation Theory

