title: Effects of vibratory, edible, and social reinforcement on performance of institutionalized mentally retarded individuals.
abstract: The relative effectiveness of verbal praise, vibration, and edible reward as methods of enhancing and maintaining performance on a perceptual-motor task was investigated. Sixty-six mentally retarded students were divided into high- and low-MA groups and randomly assigned to reinforcement conditions. Data analysis revealed that response rates for the low-MA students in the verbal condition reinforcement and the nonreinforcement phases were significantly lower than the response rates for the low-MA students in any phase of the edible or vibratory conditions. No significant difference in reinforcer effectiveness was observed across various phases for students in the high-MA groups.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D007326:Institutionalization; D007360:Intelligence; D009042:Motivation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012056:Reinforcement, Social; D014732:Vibration