PubMed · 14130088
PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT (ACQUISITION) EFFECTS WITHIN SUBJECTS.
Abstract
Acquisition performance of 22 rats in a straight alley runway was examined. The animals were subjected to partial reinforcement when the alley was black (B+/-) and continuous reinforcement when it was white (W+). The results indicated (a) higher terminal performance, for partial as against continuous reinforcement conditions, for starting-time and running-time measures, and (b) lower terminal performance under partial conditions for a goal-entry-time measure. These results confirm within subjects an effect previously demonstrated, in the runway, only in between-groups tests, where one group is run under partial reinforcement and a separate group is run under continuous reinforcement in the presence of the same external stimuli. Differences between the runway situation, employing a discrete-trial procedure and performance measures at three points in the response chain, and the Skinner box situation, used in its free-operant mode with a single performance measure, are discussed in relation to the present findings.
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A AMSEL, J R MACKINNON, M E RASHOTTE, C T SURRIDGE. 1964. PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT (ACQUISITION) EFFECTS WITHIN SUBJECTS.. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.1964.7-135
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