One hundred twenty-eight preschool boys were subjects in a 4x2x2 factorial design to investigate the change in reinforcer efficacy as a function of prior stimulus exposure. The factors were: (1) amount of repetition, 5, 25, 45, or 65; (2) reinforcer, good or bell; and (3) satiator, good or bell. Two additional groups were run as control groups to…

Research supported in whole by Public Health Service Grant HD-00908 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The notion of differentially reinforcing low rates of undesirable behavior (DRL) is examined. Further, the status of the full session DRL strategy as alternative to punishment is questioned in context of a strictly operant definition of punishment. A reexamination of the data from some studies reveals the possibility that Ss respond to said DRL…

The differences between the authors of the Coleman report and their critics make clear why the effectiveness of schools will always remain controversial as long as inferential statistics are employed to determine it. Controversy is inevitable when measurement requires the satisfaction of assumptions antithetical to the teaching processes through…

The author cautions against indiscriminate use of behavior modification by untrained professionals. (CL)

An operant conditioning discrimination paradigm was evaluated of relationships between response behavior of young children and two stimulus components of the paradigm, the discriminative stimulus and the reinforcing stimulus. Findings revealed the effects of schedules of reinforcement, novel reinforcement, and age. (Author/CL)

In contrast to the traditional view that maladaptive behaviors are surface manifestations of underlying emotional disturbances, the behavior modification approach assumes that such behaviors are simply learned ways of adjusting to the environment and are determined by the consequences that follow them. (Author)

The results clearly indicate support for the general hypothesis of differential verbal conditioning effects as a function of the interaction between value related content and the S's personal value orientation. (Author)

The present findings, although not supporting an interactional explanation, support studies that have shown A's to be more verbally facile and active, and to be more sensitive to social cues, than B's. (Author)

This study on operant conditioning showed that both groups showed significant improvement in reading skills from pretest to posttest, but that the reinforced group showed significantly more improvement than the nonreinforced group. (Author)

A primary purpose of the token system is to expand the operant model in order to provide a broader reinforcement base. The ten procedural considerations necessary for implementing a token system are presented. Beyond this, fundamental knowledge of operant principles remains essential in order to apply the token system correctly. (Author/KJ)