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Revisiting conjugate schedules
Author(s) -
MacAleese Kenneth R.,
Ghezzi Patrick M.,
Rapp John T.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1002/jeab.160
Subject(s) - conjugate , reinforcement , clarity , psychology , punishment (psychology) , conjugate prior , extinction (optical mineralogy) , developmental psychology , social psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , mathematics , chemistry , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , bayesian probability , mineralogy , bayes' theorem
The effects of conjugate reinforcement on the responding of 13 college students were examined in three experiments. Conjugate reinforcement was provided via key presses that changed the clarity of pictures displayed on a computer monitor in a manner proportional to the rate of responding. Experiment 1, which included seven parameters of clarity change per response, revealed that responding decreased as the percentage clarity per response increased for all five participants. These results indicate that each participant's responding was sensitive to intensity change, which is a parameter of conjugate reinforcement schedules. Experiment 2 showed that responding increased during conjugate reinforcement phases and decreased during extinction phases for all four participants. Experiment 3 also showed that responding increased during conjugate reinforcement and further showed that responding decreased during a conjugate negative punishment condition for another four participants. Directions for future research with conjugate schedules are briefly discussed.