Effect of Incentives upon the Role of “Social” Cues and Reinforcers in Probability Learning

In a modified probability learning task in which each trial, i.e., occasion for prediction of one of two evencs: El or E2, is signalled by a discriminative cue, sl or 52, giving the cue a connotation serves to retard both discrimination and probabiliry learning (Neimark & Rosenberg, 1959). The present study attempted to determine if comparable effects result from giving the Ei a connotation. Results of rwo studies employing formally similar tasks (Atkinson & Suppes, 1958; Sidowski, 1957) suggest that social El will have much less effect. Earlier studies employing NYU student Ss on chis task yielded discrepant results from those obtained by Neimark and Rosenberg (1959) with AF Ss. Analysis of the differences suggested that Ss motivation may be a determinant of the effect of social cues. Although there are many possible ways of manipulating motivation, we chose the incentive of a $10 reward for accurate performance as an effective and innocuous technique. The presence or absence of this incentive was an additional independent variable of the present study. METHOD Apparatz~s.-Ss were run three at a rime. Each S was seated at an individual console adjacent to his fellows but separated from them by a fulllength partition. Each S console contained four I-in. panel lamps mounted in two rows of rwo each with a spring-loaded toggle switch centered between the two lower lamps. The upper lamps, s1 and 52, were white; the two lower ones, El and E2 were green. Each trial began with a 2fi-sec. presentation of one of the si which was followed immediately by the 1%-sec. presentacion of one of the Ei. The next trial began after an intertrial interval whose duration was varied within a range of 4 to 6 sec. by means of a 40-position stepping-switch programmer. All three Ss run at a session received the same sequence of si and El, which was presented by E according to a predetermined random schedule. Responses were recorded by means of an Esterline-Angus operations recorder. Subjects.-Sixry-four student volunteers were run during the summer session and an additional 48 were run during the fall semester. There were minor procedural differences among the several replications with respect to

Cognitive psychology · Incentive · Microeconomics · Pedagogy · Social facilitation · Social learning · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Child and Animal Learning Development · Psychology · Social Psychology · Statistics Education and Methodologies