Abstract
College student Ss were given a series of about 250 trials in a simple, nonchoice, reaction time situation, some preassigned monetary reward being credited to their accounts following each response. Each trial began, for control Ss, with, a warning light, and, for experimental Ss, with a display of the reward value assigned for the trial The reward received depended in no way upon any property of the S’s response. Results revealed a small but reliable tendency for reaction time of experimental Ss to vary inversely with the magnitude of reward anticipated on any given trial.
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ESTES, W. K. Reinforcement in human learning. Technical Report No. 125, Nonr. 225 (73), Stanford University, Stanford, California, 1967, 50 pp. (To be published in J. Tapp (Ed.), Reinforcement, New York: Academic Press, in press.)
KELLER, L., COLE, M., BURKE, C. J., & ESTES, W. K. Reward and information values of trial outcomes in paired-associate learning. Psychol. Monogr., 1965, 79 (Whole No. 605).
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1. This research was supported in part by Grant GB 3878 from the National Science Foundation.
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Stillings, N.A., Allen, G.A. & Estes, W.K. Reaction time as a function of noncontingent reward magnitude. Psychon Sci 10, 337–338 (1968). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03331549
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03331549