Abstract
Nine subjects with mental retardation were trained with a fading procedure to perform two-choice simple-discrimination tasks. Immediately after meeting a learning criterion, discrimination reversals were trained within the same sessions, also with the fading procedure. Two 10- or 16-reversal conditions were compared within subjects: High, in which all correct responses for the initial discrimination were followed by reinforcers, and Low, in which the initial discrimination was trained with an intermittent reinforcement schedule and a lower obtained reinforcer rate. In both conditions, reinforcers followed all correct responses during reversal training. Reversal learning error rates were higher in the High condition for 8 subjects. Thus, the rate of reinforcement during the initial discrimination training was related to the persistence of stimulus control, as shown by more selections of the initially positive stimulus during reversal training in the High condition. The results are consistent with behavioral momentum theory. The results indicate that (a) behavioral momentum may describe stimulus control in discrete-trial procedures, and (b) teaching procedures may sometimes benefit from tactical reductions in local reinforcement density to encourage changes or transfers of stimulus control.
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This research was supported by NICHD Grant HD 33802. The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NICHD. Portions of the data were presented in a poster at the May 2001 meeting of the Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior. We thank Lyn Balsamo, Kristin Lombard, and Jason Krienke for help with implementation, data collection, and data analysis; and also Jen Brooks, Kathy Clark, Kevin Farren, Paul Filkins, Tom Fowler, Fay lennaco, Susan Kelledy, Alison McVay, Nora Murphy, Rena Sphritzer, Aimee Smith, Susan Stanford, and Sharon Wang for their help with data collection. Special thanks to Elenice Hanna for comments on the manuscript, and The New England Center for Children and The Protestant Guild Learning Center for their cooperation.
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Dube, W.V., McIlvane, W.J. Reinforcer Rate and Stimulus Control in Discrimination Reversal Learning. Psychol Rec 52, 405–416 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395194
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395194