A report on research which investigates the effectiveness of a reinforcement program which would require an increased amount of desirable behavior for each unit of reinforcement. (Author)

One of the most robust and reliable learning phenomena documented in the animal learning literature is the enhancement of discriminative performance by differential outcomes. To date, very few studies have focused on this effect in humans. The results obtained in these studies support the potential use of the differential outcomes procedure in…

Investigated were the effects of varying instructional explicitness (minimal, general, and explicit) and types of reinforcement (none, extrinsic, and intrinsic or relational) on the learning of an oddity discrimination task by 48 nursery school children. Ss were randomly assigned to six groups where general or minimal instructional explicitness…

Auditory sequencing problems were seen as contributing heavily to neurologically involved children's language impairment, and several procedures for training auditory sequencing were explored. Five of the procedures were found to contribute considerably to an efficient and effective training program. These procedures included (1) the immediate…

Language training for the non-verbal or language delayed child should utilize feedback to reinforce correct responses and should closely follow the syntactical development of normal children. The two basic areas of language training are receptive and expressive. Receptive language training includes attending and responding, following single phase…

This study tests the contention that a reinforcing agent's manner of administering rewards and punishments is construed by his associates as revealing his margin of freedom, and that associates are more attentive to cues concerning a reinforcing agent's dispositional qualities, and more inclined to ingratiate themselves to him, when he employes…

Stimulus discrimination is a standard subject in undergraduate courses presenting basic principles of learning, and a particularly interesting aspect of discrimination is the peak shift phenomenon. Peak shift occurs in generalization tests following intradimensional discrimination training as a displacement of peak responding away from the S+ (a…

Reports that praise and extrinsic reinforcers, such as candy, increased the rate of letter recognition in preschool children and that the increase was partially maintained when the reinforcement was removed. (FL)

Teachers and teacher educators seem to be little aware of some major concepts about instruction that provide important insights into the central requirements for learning. A common misconception is that motivation has to do with wanting or desiring. It is instead attention to stimuli that is influenced by two powerful agents--(1) suspense,…