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Effects of pairing stimuli with reinforcement on multiple schedule performance of children
Insights
This study investigated how pairing nonsense words with reinforcement affects children's word production. Results show that word pairing influences response rates, but the order of experimental components also plays a role.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Child Development
- Experimental Psychology
Background:
- Conditioned reinforcement is a key concept in behavioral psychology, explaining how neutral stimuli acquire reinforcing properties.
- Understanding how children learn and respond to paired stimuli is crucial for educational and therapeutic interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the effect of pairing a nonsense word with primary reinforcement on the emission of a response that produces the word.
- To investigate whether children's button-pressing behavior changes when a word is paired with reinforcement versus when it is not.
Main Methods:
- Children participated in a multiple schedule experiment with three components signaled by different colored lights: primary reinforcement, conditioned reinforcement, and control.
- In the primary reinforcement component, lever presses yielded reinforcers, sometimes paired with a nonsense word.
- In the conditioned reinforcement component, button presses produced a word being paired with reinforcement, while control component button presses produced a different, unpaired word.
Main Results:
- Button pressing increased when a word was being paired with reinforcement and decreased when pairing ceased.
- However, similar rate changes in button pressing were observed in the control component, suggesting other factors were at play.
- The order in which the experimental components were presented was identified as a significant contributing variable to the observed behavior.
Conclusions:
- Pairing a word with reinforcement can influence response rates, but the effect is not solely attributable to conditioned reinforcement.
- The experimental design, specifically the order of components, can modulate behavioral responses.
- Further research is needed to fully disentangle the variables influencing word production and response rates in children.
Abstract:
A nonsense word was paired with reinforcement to determine if pairing affected emission of a response that produced the word in the signalled absence of reinforcement. Children were trained on a multiple schedule that consisted of a reinforcement component, conditioned reinforcement component, and control component, each set of contingencies being signalled by a different colored light. In the primary reinforcement component, lever presses produced reinforcers which, in some phases, were paired with a word. In the other two components, lever presses were not reinforced and a button was made accessible. Button presses in the conditioned reinforcement component produced the word to be (or being) paired, e.g., "yafeh", while button presses in the control component produced another word, e.g., "grunch". Button pressing increased when one of the words was being paired and decreased when pairing was discontinued, but directly related rate changes occurred also in the control component. The order of components was shown to be a contributing variable.