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Control of myoelectrical responses through reinforcement
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|September 1, 1985
Summary
Subtle thumb movements, imperceptible to individuals, can be conditioned by avoiding unpleasant noise. Subsequent experiments explored this phenomenon, revealing nuances in response rate changes and reinforcement effectiveness.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Operant Conditioning
Background:
- Hefferline, Keenan, and Harford (1959) demonstrated that imperceptible thumb-twitches could be controlled by consequences.
- This phenomenon involves operant conditioning of minute, unobservable responses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To replicate and further investigate the conditioning of imperceptible thumb-twitches.
- To examine the role of stimulus changes and reinforcement type in controlling these responses.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Replicated the original study on thumb-twitch conditioning.
- Experiment 2: Employed a control design with stimulus changes independent of responses.
- Experiment 3: Utilized analog stimulus changes as reinforcement instead of binary ones.
Main Results:
- Experiment 2 showed response rate variation unrelated to experimental events, suggesting original findings might reflect directional consistency.
- Absolute rate increases were observed in Experiment 2.
- Experiment 3 demonstrated a significant decrease in conditioned response rates (78% to 31%) when analog reinforcement was used.
Conclusions:
- The conditioning of imperceptible responses is sensitive to the nature of reinforcement.
- Analog reinforcement conditions appear less effective for controlling these subtle motor responses compared to binary changes.