Faculty Articles
Infant Responding Under Conjugate vs.Continuous Reinforcemen
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Behavior Development Bulletin
ISSN
1942-0722
Publication Date
1-1-2005
Abstract
The performance of six human infants (aged 16 to 20 weeks) was compared under a conjugate- versus a continuous- reinforcement schedule. The contingent visual stimulus, a sequence of 5 colored lights, their intensity varying in proportion to response amplitude under the conjugate hut not under the continuous schedule, was presented alone and together with a constant auditory contingent stimulus—chimes placed behind the lights—under both schedules. The target operant response—a foot press of a vertical panel—produced the lights with/without the tinkling chimes. A reversal design counterbalanced with alternating treatments was implemented for each half of the participants. Visual inspection of the graphed-operant frequencies for all six infants, and one-tail binomial tests, showed at p < 0.008 that: (a) the two contingent-stimulus complexes, visual alone and visual-plus auditory, functioned as reinforcers of leg thrusts under both reinforcement schedules; the visual-plus-auditory consequence was a more effective reinforcer for leg-thrust operants than was the visual consequence alone; and, (c) compared to the continuous CRF schedule, the conjugate-reinforcement schedule generated higher peak responding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
DOI
10.1037/h0100564
Volume
1
First Page
71
Last Page
79
NSUWorks Citation
Voltaire, M.,
Gewirtz, J.,
Pelaez, M.
(2005). Infant Responding Under Conjugate vs.Continuous Reinforcemen. Behavior Development Bulletin, 1, 71-79.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/1212
