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MODIFICATION OF SLOT‐MACHINE PREFERENCES THROUGH THE USE OF A CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION PARADIGM
Author(s) -
Zlomke Kimberly R.,
Dixon Mark R.
Publication year - 2006
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.2006.109-04
Subject(s) - psychology , task (project management) , reinforcement , cognitive psychology , token economy , social psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science , management , economics
The present experiment investigated the impact of contextually trained discriminations on gambling behavior. Nine recreational slot‐machine players were initially exposed to concurrently available computerized slot machines that were each programmed on random‐ratio schedules of reinforcement and differed only in color. All participants distributed responding equally across the two slot machines. A conditional discrimination procedure was then used to teach the contextual cues representing the arbitrary relations of “greater than” and “less than.” Following contextual cue training, participants were reexposed to the concurrent slot‐machine task. After training of the contextual cues, a higher proportion of responses were made to the slot machine that shared formal properties (i.e., color) with the contextual cue representing “greater than.”