Human observing: maintained by negative informative stimuli only if correlated with improvement in response...

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Psychology
• Operant Conditioning
• Decision Making

Background:

• Observing responses can influence behavior efficiency.
• Conditioned reinforcement plays a role in choice behavior.
• Uncertainty-reduction theories attempt to explain observational learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how observing responses affects the efficiency of reinforced behavior in college students.
• To test the conditioned-reinforcement hypothesis against the uncertainty-reduction hypothesis.
• To examine the role of response effort and information in observational learning.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments utilized mixed schedules of reinforcement (variable-interval/extinction).
• Participants made choices between stimuli correlated with different reinforcement amounts or contingencies.
• Response efficiency and stimulus preference were measured under varying conditions of effort and information.

Main Results:

• In Experiment 1, participants preferred stimuli associated with larger average rewards, supporting conditioned reinforcement.
• In Experiment 2, preference shifted towards stimuli that allowed for more efficient response distributions, particularly with high-effort responses.
• Observing stimuli that did not improve response efficiency did not maintain preference.

Conclusions:

• Observing responses are sensitive to the potential for increased response efficiency and conditioned reinforcement.
• The findings support a conditioned-reinforcement account over an uncertainty-reduction model.
• Response effort significantly modulates the value of observing stimuli that signal reinforcement opportunities.