EFFECTS OF DIRECT,INTERMITTENT, AND VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT PROCEDURES ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF INSTRUCTION-FOLLOWING BEHAVIORS IN A GROUP OF YOUNG CHILDREN1

A group of young children (mean age: 2.5 yr) were instructed to follow different requests by a teacher in a day-care setting. Experiment I verified that mean group instruction following was low (10%) despite the opportunity for “observational learning”, i.e., the group of 12 children could watch a nonreinforced adult comply with the teacher's request. In Experiment II, when positive consequences were provided contingent on the adult model's behavior, mean group instruction following was relatively unaffected (14%). When direct reinforcement was given to four peer models, each for several sessions, the individual performances of three of the four peer models was elevated (from 50% to 80%); however, the mean performance of the remaining nonreinforced children (N = 7) was only moderately affected (21%). When reinforcement contingencies were again changed, so that each group member was provided direct, but intermittent reinforcement, mean group performance increased substantially to levels of over 70%. Once instruction following was high, presentation of reinforcement only to one peer model sufficed to maintain performance whereas earlier, this same vicarious reinforcement procedure had failed to establish group compliance. The maintenance of instruction-following behavior when reinforcement was applied solely to one child was interpreted mainly in terms of a high resistance to extinction following a history of intermittent reinforcement rather than a “vicarious”- or “self”-reinforcement mechanism. Finally, removal and re-introduction of group intermittent reinforcement, respectively, lowered performance (to levels of 40%) and elevated (to levels of 65%) the group's performance.     

Individual differences in preferences for intrinsic versus extrinsic aspects of work

We examined individual differences in preferences for intrinsic versus extrinsic aspects of work among two representative national samples of males from the Ohio State University National Longitudinal Surveys: young men, aged 14 to 24, and middle-aged men, aged 45 to 59, when first interviewed in 1966. The statistical technique utilized to measure systematic preference differences was Multiple Classification Analysis, a nonlinear form of multiple regression analysis. Findings suggest that preferences are significantly related to age, occupation, class of worker, job satisfaction, educational attainment, and race. After simultaneously controlling for all explanatory variables, very little consistent evidence of preference differences was found between white-collar and blue-collar workers, rural and urban workers, or among individuals with different levels of income.     

The effects of delayed auditory feedback on the overt behaviors of stutterers

This study investigated the differential effect of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) upon general (e.g., repetitions) and specific (e.g., repetitions of initial, medial, and final syllables) overt types of dysfluent behaviors. Ten moderate to severe stutterers performed an oral reading task under both NDAF and DAF (200 msec). DAF resulted in a significant increase in the total number of dysfluencies but had a differential effect upon certain general and specific behaviors. Blocks decreased significantly, prolongations increased significantly, and repetitions and interjections did not change significantly in frequency of occurence. To a limited extent, DAF had a differential effect on specific behaviors. All specific prolongation behaviors increased significantly while only one specific block behavior (ddelays in starting words) decreased. The authors discuss these results in terms of the vocal changes that occurred under DAF and speculate as to their importance in establishing fluency. DAF is viewed as promoting prolongations and prolongations are viewed as inhibiting excessive stoppages of the breathstream, thus promoting fluency (e.g., delays in starting words).     

Dissonance theory,self-perception and the bogus pipeline

Studied attitude change following counter-attitudinal advocacy where there was little incentive for subject compliance in an attempt to compare dissonance and self-perception theory predictions. The extent of attitude change was determined either by self-report or by having subjects predict their own true attitudes purportedly monitored by the experimenter using a ‘bogus pipeline’. Forty-eight male and female subjects, students from an introductory Psychology course, were invited to take part in a study of Current Campus Issues. They wrote a short statement that argued against an issue for which they had previously held a positive attitude. Results indicate that there was a significant attitude change in both conditions (p < .003). Attitude change under these circumstances is more successfully explained by the self-perception theory than dissonance theory.     

Avoidance behavior and perceived arousal

Previous investigations of the effects of bogus arousal feedback on approach toward an aversive stimulus have failed to separate two conceptual issues: (1) the influence of perceived anxiety on approach behavior, and (2) the degree to which perceptions of decreased anxiety are central to systematic desensitization. The present research deals with only the first of these issues. The procedure required each subject to attach a microphone to his or her chest and approach a snake. Bogus heartbeat feedback was presented concurrently with the subject's approach. In Experiments 1 and 2, self-reported snake phobics approached more with a constant than with an accelerating heartbeat. Nonphobics in Experiment 2 were not systematically influenced by the feedback. In Experiment 3, subjects with moderate fear, but who had stated that they could pick up a snake, behaved like the previously tested nonphobics; moderate fear subjects who had stated uncertainty about their ability to handle a snake behaved like previously tested phobics. In no case did postexperimental self-rated fear of snakes yield a difference between feedback conditions. The results are discussed in terms of the attributional analysis of emotional behavior.     

Classifying pictures and words: Implications for the dual-coding hypothesis

In deciding that two items come from the same category, subjects were delayed if the items were presented as a word and a picture, as compared with two words or two pictures. Subjects were not delayed if the items were not to be compared. Hence, the delay appears to occur during the retrieval and comparison of know ledge about the items, not during their perceptual analysis. The results suggest that there are two distinct codes involved in the categorization of words and pictures, rather than a single code.     

Memory for pictures and words as a function of level of processing: Depth or dual coding?

The experiment was designed to test differential predictions derived from dual-coding and depth-of-processing hypotheses. Subjects under incidental memory instructions free recalled a list of 36 test events, each presented twice. Within the list, an equal number of events were assigned to structural, phonemic, and semantic processing conditions. Separate groups of subjects were tested with a list of pictures, concrete words, or abstract words. Results indicated that retention of concrete words increased as a direct function of the processing-task variable (structural < phonemic 相似文献