Faculty Articles
Preference for Unreliable Reinforcement in Children with Mental Retardation: The Role of Conditioned Reinforcement
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
ISSN
0021-8855
Publication Date
Winter 2000
Abstract
We examined the effects of conditioned reinforcement on children's choice between reliable (100%) and unreliable (50%) reinforcement under various stimulus conditions in a concurrent-chains procedure. The study was conducted across three experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 were conducted under conditions similar to basic laboratory work and consisted of participants selecting from one of two black boxes (placed on a table) that were correlated with different reinforcement schedules. In Experiment 3, we assessed a participant's preference for unreliable reinforcement during conditions in which the target responses were aggression and mands. Results of the three experiments showed that the participants preferred unreliable reinforcement under certain conditions. Findings are discussed regarding the role of specific stimuli (i.e., items correlated with a reinforcement schedule, adult reactions) as conditioned reinforcers and how they may influence children's preference for a response (e.g., aggression, self-injury) that produces reinforcement on a leaner schedule than a socially desirable response (e.g., mands).
DOI
10.1901/jaba.2000.33-533
Volume
33
Issue
4
First Page
533
Last Page
544
NSUWorks Citation
Lalli, J. S.,
Mauro, B. C.,
Mace, F. C.
(2000). Preference for Unreliable Reinforcement in Children with Mental Retardation: The Role of Conditioned Reinforcement. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 33(4), 533-544.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/380
