title: Effects of modeling versus instructions on sensitivity to reinforcement schedules.
abstract: This study examined the effects of modeling versus instructions on the choices of 3 typically developing children and 3 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) whose academic responding showed insensitivity to reinforcement schedules. During baseline, students chose between successively presented pairs of mathematics problems associated with different variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. After responding proved insensitive to the schedules, sessions were preceded by either instructions or modeling, counterbalanced across students in a multiple baseline design across subjects. During the instruction condition, students were told how to distribute responding to earn the most reinforcers. During the modeling condition, students observed the experimenter performing the task while describing her distribution of responding to obtain the most reinforcers. Once responding approximated obtained reinforcement under either condition, the schedules of reinforcement were changed, and neither instruction nor modeling was provided. Both instruction and modeling interventions quickly produced patterns of response allocation that approximated obtained rates of reinforcement, but responding established with modeling was more sensitive to subsequent changes in the reinforcement schedules than responding established with instructions. Results were similar for students with and without ADHD.
authors.affiliation: College of Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA. neef.2@osu.edu
authors.forename: Nancy A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Neef
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marckel
authors.forename: Summer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferreri
authors.forename: Sunhwa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nist
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Armstrong
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior