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Modeling Verbal Behavior Deficits with the Stimulus Control Ratio Equation, SCoRE

Modeling Verbal Behavior Deficits with the Stimulus Control Ratio Equation, SCoRE

Published on: May 14, 2019

Verbal behavior and initial exposure to delayed reinforcement.

T Byrne, S McNulty, Q Babcock

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior

|April 6, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human learning can occur even without conscious awareness of the environmental conditions. Some participants learned responses despite an inability to describe the contingencies or delays involved.

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Area of Science:

Behavioral psychology
Cognitive science
Human learning

Background:

Studies with non-humans show learning under delayed consequences.
Human sensitivity to delayed consequences is less understood.
Investigating the relationship between verbalization and learning is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To examine human sensitivity to delayed consequences.
To assess if verbal descriptions correlate with learning.
To explore learning in the absence of explicit contingency awareness.

Main Methods:

Ten subjects participated in a 75-minute session.
A tandem fixed-ratio schedule with delayed point delivery (10 or 20s) was used.
Subjects described the contingencies throughout the session.

Main Results:

A minority of subjects convincingly demonstrated sensitivity to delayed consequences.
All subjects showed inefficient responding and described nonexistent contingencies.
Learning occurred in some subjects without accurate verbalization of contingencies.

Conclusions:

Human learning can occur without the ability to verbally describe environmental-behavior relations.
Conscious awareness or verbal report may not be necessary for all forms of learning.
Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms of implicit learning.