[Combination of self-reinforcement and external-reinforcement on matching-to-sample learning]

This study aimed at to investigate the combined effects of self-reinforcement (SR) and external-reinforcement (ER) on a matching-to-sample learning task. Four colored cards with four different marks (20, 10, 0, -10) were employed. Subjects of 27 college students were divided into three groups; SR, ER, and SR-ER groups, and they were requested to choose correct cards to score 20 marks in each trial. Subjects in SR and SR-ER groups were required to express their degrees of confidence by exhibiting either one, two or three chips of token accordingly. Following results were obtained. First, reinforcing powers were greater under both SR and SR-ER conditions than ER condition. Second, SR-ER group manifested a remarkably higher learning effect compared to SR group. This is interpreted as that the former established a sort of self-assurance due to ER contingency during this learning condition. Finally, the number of chips SR and SR-ER groups presented corresponded to the hitting rate of marks between n and n + 1 trials.