Reinforcement of visual attending in classrooms for deaf children

The efficacy of immediate tangible reinforcement in increasing appropriate visual attending for entire classes of deaf children was examined. The subjects were three classes (seven children each) in a residential school for the deaf. Boxes were installed on each child's desk, with lights that were flashed immediately contingent upon 10 sec of visual attending. Light flashes were backed up by M & M's, cereal bits, or tokens. In two of the classes, extinction sessions were also scheduled. For all classes, the reinforcement procedure increased visual attending by 50% or more, maintaining it at rates above 82%. Withdrawal of tangibles decreased attending back to baseline levels. The results support analysis of attending as operant behavior and demonstrate the applicability of reinforcement procedures in modifying these behaviors for young deaf children in a classroom setting.     

Individual differences in verbal conditioning, extinction, and awareness

The present study examined the relationship of three individual difference variables—need for approval, a belief in internal versus external control of reinforcement, and verbal intelligence— to acquisition, extinction, and awareness in a verbal conditioning task Based on a postexperiment interview and recognition task, subjects were grouped according to their awareness of the response-reinforcement contingencies and the degree to which they admitted influence by the experimenter Approval motivated subjects were more likely to acquire the reinforced response regardless of awareness levels than were low need for approval subjects. Subjects assessed as internal were more likely to deny influence by the experimenter and in some instances were more resistant to extinction than subjects called external Subjects higher in verbal intelligence evidenced more awareness than subjects with lower intelligence scores Results suggest that the inclusion of individual difference variable is of crucial importance to a clear understanding of the experimenter-subject interaction in the verbal conditioning situation Implications for the other dyadic interactions, particularly psychotherapy, were discussed