Shifts in Response-Reward Interval and its Effect upon Response Speed

Previous studies (Lipsitt, Castaneda, & Kemble, 1959; Rieber, 1961) have demonstrated that delay of reward retards the response speed of children in instrumental conditioning situations. In one of these studies (Rieber, 1961) children learned to press a lever at the onset of a stimulus light, and response speed was used as the measure of performance. The effect of delay was shown to be more detrimental when the light remained on during the delay interval. It was concluded that the presence of the stimulus during the delay interval facilitated the association of extraneous responses with it and that these responses competed with the appropriate lever-pressing response. The present study is concerned with determining the effects on children's response speed of shifting the reward conditions from immediate to delayed and from delayed to immediate. One of the two experimental groups was trained with immediate reward and switched to delay; the other group was trained with delay and switched to immediate. Two additional groups served as controls. One of these was kept on immediate reward and the other was kept on delayed reward throughout all the trials. If the major effect of delay is to associate competing responses with the conditioned stimulus (CS), then the group switched from delayed to immediate reward should show a gradual improvement and approach the performance of the immediate reward control group, as the competing responses became extinguished. The group switched from immediate to delayed reward should demonstrate a gradual decrement and approach the performance of the delayed reward control group as competing responses were gradually learned and came ro be elicited by the conditioned stimulus

Combinatorics · Interval (graph theory · Response bias · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Early Childhood Education and Development · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology

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  Open Access•F Michael Rabinowitz•Psychological Reports•1968

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  Open Access•Albert J Lott, Joseph F Aponte et al.•Journal of Experimental Social…•1969

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