Human operant responding on schedules of reinforcement: Investigation of the verbal history and public performance variables
Date
1986
Authors
Douglas, John Oliver
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Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine the following conceptual and methodological issue. Human performance on schedules of reinforcement is determined by multiple interacting variables. The most frequently examined variables, instructions and schedules, are important but are not exhaustive of all the contingencies interacting to determine human operant performance. Apart from examinations of other additional variables, investigations into the interaction of instructions and schedules themselves are not sufficiently advanced to support any particular contentions about their nature. It follows that extrapolations from the present data in general are premature. The controversy surrounding the issue of interspecies generality of operant principles, as it is related to human and other animal schedule performance differences, is a case in point.
The present study examines two variables which appear to interact with instructions, schedules, and perhaps other unidentified contingencies to determine human performance on schedules of reinforcement. Will performance on Multiple Fixed Interval Fixed Ratio (MULT FR :50 FI:10 sec.) schedules be systematically altered by superimposing the terms TEST PERIOD and PRACTICE PERIOD on portions of the session? Will subjects respond differently from periods labelled PRACTICE when experimenter access to performance information is likely? The data generated by six subjects over twelve experimental sessions suggests no particular systematic effects on performance of these manipulations. True to the literature, performance was characterized by intersubject variability. The performance of each subject was reviewed and some methodological issues surrounding human intersubject response variability discussed.