Delay-of-reward gradients in discrimination learning with children for two levels of difficulty.

An Evaluation of Programmed Treatment-Integrity Errors During Discrete-Trial Instruction

“…Overall, these findings suggest that integrity errors with DTI may be more problematic when a difficult skill or multiple target stimuli simultaneously are trained (see Hockman & Lipsitt, 1961). It is possible that the responses we targeted for training in Study 3 were more difficult than the responses we trained in Study 2.…”

Effects of Concurrent Delays of Material Rewards and Punishments on Problem-Solving in Children

“…Moreover, if knowledge-of-results were the only important factor determining children's learning and if omission of a stimulus during the first few seconds following a response were a sufficient indicator of the outcome of a trial, one would not expect the differential effects for delay-of-reward and delay-of-punishment which are reflected in Tables i and 2. Thus, while they primarily provide support for the findings of Hockman and Lipsitt (2), the data presented in this paper also generate some problems concerning the relative effectiveness of knowledge of results and the provision of "extrinsic" rewards and punishments for facilitating children's learning.…”

“…Tables I and 2 show the mean number of trials to criterion and the mean number of errors of Ss in each of the nine experimental groups. Hockman and Lipsitt (2), who used fourth grade children as Ss, reported a negligible delay-of-reward gradient for an easy two-choice discrimination task but an appreciable effect of delay when the task was a more difficult three-stimulus problem. The task used in the present study may be regarded as relatively difficult, especially in view of the chronological age of Ss, and the results as being in accordance with those reported by Hockman and Lipsitt.…”

“…Most available studies (2,3,4) suggest that children's performance in discrimination and choice tasks becomes relatively poorer with increasing delay of reward, although Erickson and Lipsitt (I) found that delay of reward of up to 6 sec. did not consistently influence children's learning of a simultaneous or successive discrimination task.…”

Delay of reinforcement gradients in children’s learning

“…Experimental studies with children (Hockman & Lipsitt, 1961;Lipsitt & Castaneda, 1958;Lipsitt et al, 1959) have indicated that performance on discrimination and choice tasks becomes increasingly poorer with increasing delay of reward, at least over the brief time intervals that have so far been investigated. Evidence of an analogous delay-of-punishment gradient has so far been obtained only from animal studies in which electric shocks have served as punishments (e.g., Kamin, 1959).…”