The role of response-reinforcer relationship in discrimination learning of mentally retarded persons.
The role of the spatial relationship between target responses and reinforcers in the discrimination learning of mentally retarded subjects was evaluated. On each training trial, subjects were instructed to move a hand-operated manipulandum to a positive stimulus located at the left or right end of a track. Correct responses were immediately followed by onset of a light and presentation of an edible reinforcer. In the control condition the light and edible reinforcers were presented in a single location equidistant from the ends of the manipulandum track; in the experimental condition, they were presented directly adjacent to the terminus of the response at the end of the manipulandum track corresponding to the location of the correct stimulus. Results showed that discrimination performance was more efficient in the experimental condition than in the control condition.
D000328:Adult; D003118:Color Perception; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D014040:Token Economy