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FIXED‐INTERVAL PERFORMANCE AND SELF‐CONTROL IN CHILDREN
Author(s) -
Darcheville J. C.,
Rivière V.,
Wearden J. H.
Publication year - 1992
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.1992.57-187
Subject(s) - reinforcement , interval (graph theory) , psychology , audiology , statistics , schedule , duration (music) , developmental psychology , mathematics , social psychology , medicine , computer science , combinatorics , operating system , art , literature
Operant responses of 16 children (mean age 6 years and 1 month) were reinforced according to different fixed‐interval schedules (with interreinforcer intervals of 20, 30, or 40 s) in which the reinforcers were either 20‐s or 40‐s presentations of a cartoon. In another procedure, they received training on a self‐control paradigm in which both reinforcer delay (0.5 s or 40 s) and reinforcer duration (20 s or 40 s of cartoons) varied, and subjects were offered a choice between various combinations of delay and duration. Individual differences in behavior under the self‐control procedure were precisely mirrored by individual differences under the fixed‐interval schedule. Children who chose the smaller immediate reinforcer on the self‐control procedure (impulsive) produced short postreinforcement pauses and high response rates in the fixed‐interval conditions, and both measures changed little with changes in fixed‐interval value. Conversely, children who chose the larger delayed reinforcer in the self‐control condition (the self‐controlled subjects) exhibited lower response rates and long postreinforcement pauses, which changed systematically with changes in the interval, in their fixed‐interval performances.