Partial Reinforcement in a Bar-Pressing Situation with Preschool Children |
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| Authors: | Nicholas Fattu Donavon Auble Edmund V. Mech |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Educational Research , Indiana University , Bloomington , Indiana , USA;2. College of Education , University of Oklahoma , Norman , Oklahoma , USA;3. Department of Psychology , Western College for Women , Oxford , Ohio , USA |
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| Abstract: | Forty fifth- and sixth-grade children were given a list of names which they had prerated for Reinforcement Value in a free recall format. The prediction was made that high self-esteem children will learn their liked names more rapidly than their disliked names, but that low self-esteem children would show the reverse tendency. Although an RV-positive effect is noted in the sample, the expected reversal did not occur. A confounding factor proved to be intelligence, since it was impossible to divorce self-esteem from IQ in the sample investigated. The presentation closes with a discussion of the “logical learning theory” on which RV study is based, and the implications that this theory has for the role of self-induced behavior. |
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