On the effects of noncontingent delivery of differing magnitudes of reinforcement.
We conducted a parametric analysis of response suppression associated with different magnitudes of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR). Participants were 5 adults with severe or profound mental retardation who engaged in a manual response that was reinforced on variable-ratio schedules during baseline. Participants were then exposed to NCR via multielement and reversal designs. The fixed-time schedules were kept constant while the magnitude of the reinforcing stimulus was varied across three levels (low, medium, and high). Results showed that high-magnitude NCR schedules produced large and consistent reductions in response rates, medium-magnitude schedules produced less consistent and smaller reductions, and low-magnitude schedules produced little or no effect on responding. These results suggest that (a) NCR affects responding by altering an establishing operation (i.e., attenuating a deprivation state) rather than through extinction, and (b) magnitude of reinforcement is an important variable in determining the effectiveness of NCR.
Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno 89557-0062, USA. jcarr@unr.edu
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JE
Carr
J S
JS
Bailey
C L
CL
Ecott
K D
KD
Lucker
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TM
Weil
D000328:Adult; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012528:Satiety Response / Q000145:classification