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THE ROLE OF OFFER RATES IN CONTROLLING SHARING BY YOUNG CHILDREN 1
Author(s) -
Warren Steven F.,
RogersWarren Ann,
Baer Donald M.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1901/jaba.1976.9-491
Subject(s) - praise , reinforcement , psychology , developmental psychology , period (music) , social psychology , acoustics , physics
The effects of different reinforcement contingencies on the rates of offers to share and their corresponding rates of acceptance by two small groups of preschool children were investigated in two experiments. In the first experiment, food and praise were given after a 5‐min play period to any subject who had made one or more offers to share during the play period. This procedure increased the rate of share‐offers by all subjects. However, as share‐offers increased, the percentage of offers accepted decreased. In the second experiment, reinforcement was made contingent on a subject reducing offers to share to only one or two per 5‐min period. This led to a higher percentage of the offers being accepted. The results suggest that by controlling the rate of a social behavior, the manner in which other persons in the environment respond to the behavior may also be influenced.