An examination of vicarious reinforcement processes in children

The primary purpose of the present investigation was to examine vicarious reinforcement processes in children. More specifically, the effects on one child of observing another same-sex child receive direct reinforcement were explored across three different age levels. Subjects were 216 children, randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. For the control condition, neither child in the same-sex, same-age dyad received reinforcement for performance on the experimental task. For the experimental condition, one child in each dyad received direct social reinforcement for performance, while the other child received no social reinforcement for similar performance. Although children who observed other children receive direct social reinforcement initially increased performance (as predicted by vicarious reinforcement hypotheses), their performance soon decreased and was characterized by verbal and nonverbal responses which appeared to interfere with task performance (e.g., “Hey, I can do them too”, “Look at mine”, “There's no use in trying”). It appeared as if these observing children were being punished for their performance. Such effects were more pronounced for older than younger children; however, they were observed equally in boys and girls. Results were discussed in terms of vicarious reinforcement and “implicit punishment” hypotheses. Implications for applied settings were also addressed.     

Trait anxiety,stress, and learning a test of Saltz's hypothesis

Behavioral predictions from Saltz's, Spence's, and Spielberger's interpretations of trait anxiety were tested in a complex verbal learning task. Fifty-three high-anxious and 52 low-anxious male college students were randomly distributed to test conditions of failure-stress, pain-stress, or neutral instructions. The learning data revealed that high-anxious-failure and low-anxious-pain Ss were disrupted and supported Saltz's hypothesis; self-reported anxiety (A-State scale, STAI) was observed only in high-anxious-failure Ss and supported Spielberger's theory of the arousal of state anxiety as a function of trait anxiety. However, the contradiction between self-reported anxiety and learning behavior in low-anxious-pain Ss indicated that the verbal report of these Ss was an inaccurate or insensitive index of arousal.     

Vicious-circle behavior in the Y maze

Laboratory rats were given escape training in both arms of a Y maze followed by extinction in one of four conditions: regular (no shock), punished (both arms containing a shock mid-segment), choice, or forced (one arm containing a shock mid-segment, one arm shock free). Subjects in the punished and forced conditions required more extinction trials than those in the regular extinction condition. The choice condition was intermediate and not significantly different from the others. Choice subjects avoided the shock by choosing the safe alley early and consistently during extinction, but some continued to run for many trials without further punishment. It was suggested that the number of punished trials early in extinction is related to persistence of running, and the results were discussed in relation to the Mowrer-Brown and the discrimination hypotheses.     

Effects of a coactor's prediction on latencies to predict and indentify stimuli

On each of 300 trials E's confederate (C) verbalized which of two stimuli would occur; then S made a prediction. Following each presentation, S and C pulled a trigger to identify the stimulus. Two latencies were measured: the interval between C's and S's prediction (prediction time), and the interval between stimulus presentation and S's identification response (choice RT). Prediction times were significantly shorter when S's prediction agreed rather than disagreed with C's prediction, when S's preceding prediction was correct rather than incorrect, and when S was female rather than male. Choice RT was influenced by distributions of C's stimulus predictions and C's prediction outcomes in directions supporting an expectancy model.     

Stimulus probability and prediction outcome as determinants of choice reaction time: Some procedural considerations

Effects of stimulus probability and prediction outcome on two-choice reaction speed (CRS) were determined when a frequency imbalance was reversed half-way through 300 samples of a 70/30 stimulus distribution and when the same 70/30 distribution was sampled for 1200 trials. Prior to each presentation Ss made a prediction; following each presentation Ss identified the stimulus by pressing a right-hand or left-hand trigger. CRS was faster to correctly predicted stimuli, and faster to the more probable stimulus. Ss who were informed of the frequency imbalance reacted significantly faster than Ss who were not. Both practice and boredom effects were demonstrated by using the extended number of trials. CRS was faster during the second session of 300 trials than during the first; after two sessions, CRS was slower during the second half of two additional sessions.     

Effects of sucrose concentrations on single alternation runway responding in rats

Rats received runway training under alternating reward and nonreward in which rewarded (R) trials provided 32 or 4% sucrose concentration from a drinking tube and nonrewarded (N) trials provided a dry tube or, for half of the rats in the 32% condition, plain water. Both 32 and 4% concentrations yielded faster running on R trials than on N trials; but this effect was reliable only for the 32% condition. Compared to 4% sucrose, 32% sucrose yielded reliably slower running on N trials and unreliably faster running on R trials.     

Poison-enhanced neophobia: Effects of CS-UCSUCS-CS procedures and long-delay training

Experiment 1 (n = 110 male rats) showed that pairing sucrose with toxicosis under forward or backward conditioning procedures yielded reliable poison-enhanced neophobia toward casein hydrolysate. Forward procedures produced reliably greater and more persistent enhancement of neophobia. Experiment 2 (n = 160 male rats) showed that interpolating 10 min, or 1, 4, 8, or 12 hr between sucrose and toxicosis yielded reliable aversion effects to sucrose and poison-enhanced neophobia to casein at each interval except 8 and 12 hr. Generally speaking, the effects of training interval were similar for conditioned aversion and enhanced neophobia but conditioned aversion effects were more enduring.     

Prediction outcome and choice reaction time: Inhibition versus facilitation effects

In two-choice RT tasks Ss verbally predicted all stimulus presentations, two-thirds of the presentations, or none of the presentations. Effects of stimulus probability were similar for each type of prediction trial: Correct Prediction Outcome (PO), Incorrect PO, and No-Prediction (NP). When comparisons between Prediction and NP trials were between Ss, reactions on NP trials were significantly faster than reactions POs, but were not slower than reactions to Correct POs. However, when Prediction and NP trials occurred within Ss, reactions on NP trials were not faster than reactions to Incorrect POs, but were significantly slower than reactions to Correct POs. Speculations about Ss' implicit stimulus predictions are offered to interpret differential implications of inhibition and facilitation.     

The effects of feedback consistency and feedback favorability on self-perceived task competence and perceived feedback accuracy

The present study, employing a 2 × 2 true-experimental design and regression analyses assessed the main and interactive effects of feedback consistency (consistent vs inconsistent), and feedback favorability (acceptable vs superior), for feedback given at two time periods on measures of perceived feedback accuracy and self-perceived task competence. Among the study's findings were that (a) the perceived accuracy of feedback at the second period was a function of the favorability of feedback received at the first time period, (b) the self-perceived task competence levels of subjects were jointly determined by the favorability of feedback received at both time periods, and (c) the perceived accuracy of feedback was a function of its consistency. Organizational implications of the study's results are offered.     

Physical distance and attraction: An intensification effect

This study was designed to test the effects of both interaction distance and the quality of the interaction upon attraction. It was found that close interaction distances amplified the quality of the interaction so that for a positive interaction there was more liking for a close rather than a far partner, while for a negative interaction a close partner was liked less. The implications of this finding for research concerning crowding is discussed, as are possible explanatory mechanisms.     

Environments as reinforcer systems in the study of job satisfaction

This paper examined differences in the degree to which fifteen specific sources of job satisfaction were related to and predictive of the overall satisfaction of department chairmen in the six model environments proposed by Holland (1973). The fifteen specific sources of job satisfaction were regressed on overall satisfaction, separately for chairmen in each environment, through the use of incremental stepwise multiple regression procedures. The results indicated that the overall satisfaction of chairmen in these six environments was differentially related to unique weightings and combinations of the fifteen predictor variables. It was concluded that environments, composed of essentially similar groups of people in different organizations, serve as job satisfaction reinforcer systems in a manner similar to organizations as illustrated by Dawis.     

The influence of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of college students

The effects of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of theoretically grouped college freshmen and sophomores were investigated using Super's Career Development Inventory as the dependent measure. The dimensions of consistency/inconsistency and differentiation/nondifferentiation, as identified utilizing Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory, were investigated along with the dimensions of treatment/nontreatment and interaction effects. Predictions related to change in vocational maturity as a result of treatment were made for each dimension. The analysis sample was a group of 68 volunteer freshman and sophomore college students. Results indicated that students did significantly increase their vocational maturity as a result of the group experience. Furthermore, it was found, as predicted, that within experimental groups inconsistent and nondifferentiated students improved significantly more on some vocational maturity measures than consistent or differentiated students. Students who were both inconsistent and nondifferentiated showed consistently greater increases on virtually all vocational maturity measures than all other theoretical groups.     

The effects of recency and story content on children's moral judgments

Sixteen stories were read to children at ages 4, 7, and 11 years and to college freshmen (n = 24 per age level) to investigate the effects of recency and specific story content on the development of moral reasoning. The stories consisted of either positive or negative intention and either positive or negative consequence in one of four situations: rule breaking, property damage, property damage with peer interaction, or injury to a person. At each age level, half of the subjects heard the stories with the intention first and the consequence second, and half heard them in the reverse order. Analyses confirmed that in general younger children judged on consequence, whereas older children utilized intention, and that on stories containing intentional injury to a person, the younger child took intention into account. Recency effects were evidenced for both the 4- and 7-year-olds. In the 4-year-old group, however, the recency effects failed to override the salience of negative consequence in contexts of positive intention and negative consequence. This suggests that preschool children may respond primarily to the negative aspect of the story, whether intention or consequence.     

Interviewer evaluations of interviewee nonverbal behavior

Personnel representatives (N = 52) were shown one of four videotaped job interviews in which the verbal content of the 16-min interview was identical, but the interviewee's nonverbal behavior was manipulated. A “low nonverbal” interviewee was defined by minimal eye contact, low energy level, lack of affect and voice modulation, and a lack of speech fluency. The “high nonverbal” interviewee demonstrated the opposite behavior on each of these components. The subjects were asked to rate the videotaped candidates on dimensions previously identified as critical in influencing a job interviewer's decisions. Nonverbal behavior was found to have a significant effect on almost every rating made by subjects in this study. After reviewing the entire 16-min interview, 23 of the 26 subjects who saw the “high nonverbal” candidate would have invited him/her for a second interview. All 26 of the subjects who saw the “low nonverbal” candidate would not have recommended a second interview.