The Premack principle in human experimental and applied settings

Studies claiming support for the Premack Principle in human experimental and applied settings are reviewed in terms of the standard test conditions associated with the Principle and in terms of the Principle's conceptual constrains. Little definitive evidence was found to support the claim that a high probability response will reinforce a lower probability response, nor was the converse contention supported, that a low probability response will act as a punisher for a high probability response. More importantly, among the reports reviewed there was no evidence for the reversibility of the reinforcement relationship.     

Effects of type and amount of feedback upon hypothesis sampling systems among 7- and 8-year-old children

Second- and third-grade children (age 7 to 9 years) received a series of discrimination-learning problems containing verbal probes for hypotheses. The children received either (a) verbal-directional feedback in which the correct stimulus complex was indicated, (b) verbal feedback in which they were told whether they were correct or wrong, or (c) material feedback in which a marble was moved by the experimenter following choice responses. The three types of feedback were combined with three amounts: right-wrong, wrong-blank (blank = no feedback), and right-blank, to yield a 3 × 3 factorial design. Children in the verbal-directional right-wrong and wrong-blank conditions showed systematic problem-solving strategies in about 80% of their problems, while those in the remaining cells showed strategies in only 32 to 43% of theirs. The most prevalent processing error among children in the latter conditions was failure to resample according to a local consistency criterion following errors.     

“Snowball” and other control groups

In the Spring of 1973, the Office of Research and Development of the Appalachian Center, West Virginia University, began an evaluation of the University's mining extension program. Since all interested miners are allowed to enroll in the course, the only feasible way to obtain a control group was to use the “snowball process.” This paper examines how well the snowball process did in producing a control group which matched the trainees. While the trainees and controls seemed well matched on many demographic characteristics they differed on several variables, particularly attitudes.     

The effects of behavior rehearsal and feedback on the acquisition of problem-solving skills in distressed and nondistressed couples

Couples who were paid to participate in an experimental marital enrichment program were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions or to a control group. All groups received training in solving marital problems, but the groups differed according to how they were trained; some received feedback (FB) on their previous taped performances, some had the opportunity to practice the skills suggested by the therapist (BR), some had both (complete treatment), and some simply were presented with instructions. Changes in problem-solving skills were assessed by behavioral observations of the frequency of positive problem-solving behavior before and after treatment, and global ratings of problem-solving effectiveness made by trained raters. In general, the complete treatment condition produced greater changes from pre- to post-test than any other condition. Couples in this condition showed significantly greater increases in positive behavior than any other group, and on global ratings of problem-solving skills they evidenced the greatest improvement, although on this measure they did not improve significantly more than BR couples.     

Stimulus control of responding by response-reinforcer temporal contiguity

The stimulus properties of brief disruptions in response-reinforcer temporal contiguity were investigated using a discrete trial conditional discrimination procedure. Key pecking (nondelay) or key pecking followed by a brief interval of nonpecking (delay) in the sample component produced a stimulus change (choice component). Pecks in the choice component to one of two alternatives resulted in food or blackout, conditional upon which response requirement was met in producing the choice component. A baseline condition, in which key pecking always produced the choice component and correct choices were arranged randomly, alternated with experimental conditions that included nondelay and delay values of either 0.2, 0.5, or 1.0 sec between the last key peck and the initiation of the choice component. All subjects accurately discriminated brief temporal delays between a response and stimulus change, with choice accuracy increasing for three of four subjects as the temporal disruption in contiguity increase. Implications of the research for the study of delayed reinforcement, response-independent reinforcement, and the discrimination of causality are discussed.     

Reinforcers and vocational maturity in occupational aspiration,expectation, and goal deflection

When vocational aspirations and expectations are not the same, this difference is termed occupational goal deflection. The present study was designed to investigate the notion that such aspirations, expectations, and goal deflection are related to an individual's vocational maturity, education, and job reinforcers. The subjects were 149 vocational rehabilitation clients and 51 graduate students. Analyses of variance yielded findings that more vocationally mature individuals tend to display greater vocational aspiration, greater vocational expectation, and less goal deflection. Similarily, subjects who value such job characteristics as “getting a feeling of accomplishment, fair company policies, trying out their own ideas, doing work without feeling it is morally wrong, making their own decisions, (and) planning work with little supervision” tend to have higher aspirations and expectations, but lower goal deflection.