Premium
POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST IN 3‐MONTH‐OLD INFANTS ON MULTIPLE CONJUGATE REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES
Author(s) -
RoveeCollier Carolyn Kent,
Capatides Joanne Bitetti
Publication year - 1979
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 - 10.1901/jeab.1979.32-15
Subject(s) - reinforcement , extinction (optical mineralogy) , contrast (vision) , schedule , psychology , component (thermodynamics) , discriminative model , developmental psychology , audiology , computer science , artificial intelligence , social psychology , medicine , biology , paleontology , physics , thermodynamics , operating system
Positive behavioral contrast was assessed in two experiments with young infants using multiple conjugate reinforcement schedules. Reinforcement was produced by footkicks which activated the objects of an overhead crib mobile in a manner proportional to the vigor and rate of responding. Distinctive color/pattern cues on the sides of the objects served as discriminative stimuli for components of the multiple schedule. In Experiment 1, infants were trained with one cue (S+) only before insertion of S+ into a multiple schedule with an extinction component. A control group received S+ throughout all sessions. In Experiment 2, a multiple schedule was introduced at the outset, and responses in both components were reinforced before the introduction of extinction in the second component. In a final phase, reinforcement was reintroduced into the second component. Positive behavioral contrast occurred in both experiments. Response reduction in the extinction component was seen only in individual relative response curves. In both experiments, negative emotional behaviors accompanied the extinction component, and in Experiment 1, cooing accompanied presentations of S+.