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EVALUATING THE RELATIVE EFFECTS OF FEEDBACK AND CONTINGENT MONEY FOR STAFF TRAINING OF STIMULUS PREFERENCE ASSESSMENTS
Author(s) -
Roscoe Eileen M.,
Fisher Wayne W.,
Glover Ashley C.,
Volkert Valerie M.
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.2006.7-05
Subject(s) - discriminative model , stimulus control , psychology , preference , stimulus (psychology) , reinforcement , dreyfus model of skill acquisition , cognitive psychology , social psychology , computer science , machine learning , neuroscience , statistics , economics , nicotine , economic growth , mathematics
Performance feedback has facilitated the acquisition and maintenance of a wide range of behaviors (e.g., health‐care routines, seat‐belt use). Most researchers have attributed the effectiveness of performance feedback to (a) its discriminative functions, (b) its reinforcing functions, or (c) the combination of the two. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the relative contributions of the discriminative and reinforcing functions of performance feedback by comparing a condition in which the discriminative functions were maximized and the reinforcing functions were minimized (i.e., performance‐specific instructions without contingent money) with one in which the reinforcing functions were maximized and the discriminative functions were minimized (i.e., contingent money with no performance‐specific instructions). We compared the effects of these two conditions on the acquisition of skills involved in conducting two commonly used preference assessments. Results showed that acquisition of these skills occurred primarily in the condition with performance‐specific instruction without contingent money, suggesting that the delivery of performance‐specific instructions was critical to skill acquisition, whereas the delivery of contingent money had little effect.