Effects of Magnitude of Reward and Percentage of Reinforcement on a Lever Movement Response

Bruning, James L.

doi:10.2307/1126591

Cited by 9 publications

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“…The finding of faster movement speeds for Group 50 as compared with thOse for Group 100 is consistent with the results of similar comparisons in studies conducted by Bruning (1964), Ryan (1966), and Ry~ & Moffitt (1966). This finding is also in agreement with the hypothesis that nonreward leads to an increment in motivation as suggested by the frustration formulation of Arosel (1958) and Spence (1960).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

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Associative versus motivational interpretations of reward percentage effects on children’s performance

Pederson

1967

Psychon Sci

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Many recent experiments have shown that children perform an instrumental response with greater speed if this response is partially, rather than continuously, rewarded (Bruning, 1964;Ryan, 1966;Ryan & Moffitt, 1966). Two hypotheses have been suggested to account for these results. Amsel (1958) and Spence (1960) have assumed that an aversive motivational condition, which they term frustration, is produced in circumstances in which S anticipates but does not receive reward. The resultant increment in motivation is taken to be the factor leading to faster asymptotic performance associated with partial reward. Brown (1961) and Marx (1956) have suggested than an associative mechanism, rather than a motivational one, may account for the above results. They assume that, in the past, Ss may have been reinforced for making more vigorous responses in the face of nonreward. In studies with Children, the partial reward operation differed from continuous reward only in that the mechanism dispensing the reward was disengaged on the nonrewarded trials. This associative interpretation would indicate that the more vigorous responding found for partial reward may have been elicited by the inoperative reward dispenser. Such an effect could be mediated by implicit verbal responses of the nature "marbles (rewards) get stuck sometimes." The faster response speeds may then be attributed to the child's attempts to jar the marbles loose by forceful manipulation of the response lever.The present study was an attempt to evaluate these two alternative explanations. An implication of this associative interpretation is that ifnonreward were manipulated in a manner unlikely to indicate a malfunctioning apparatus, there should be no speed differences between partially and continuously rewarded groups. In the present study, nonreward was indicated by the marble color, rather than by witholding of the reward object.

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Associative versus motivational interpretations of reward percentage effects on children’s performance

Pederson

1967

Psychon Sci

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“…Ryan & Moffitt (1965) found that faster speeds were obtained when children were lever pulling for a low incentive (a piece of string) than for a high incentive (a ten cent toy). This was in general agreement with Bruning's (1964) finding of a slight (non-significant) decrement in children's lever pulling speed for a large incentive (five pieces of candy) relative to the speed obtained for a smaller incentive (one piece of candy).…”

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The effects of performance feedback, social and monetary incentive upon human lever pressing rate

1966

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“…The task was chosen both for Similarity to other successful children's experiments (Rieber, 1961;Bruning, 1964;Cantor & Cantor, 1964) and also for comparability to animal studies. The apparatus was a 6-ft long box containing a weighted lever which could be moved Psychon.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Punishment and reward in children’s instrumental learning

Karsh

Williams

1964

Psychon Sci

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Effects of Magnitude of Reward and Percentage of Reinforcement on a Lever Movement Response

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Associative versus motivational interpretations of reward percentage effects on children’s performance

Associative versus motivational interpretations of reward percentage effects on children’s performance

The effects of performance feedback, social and monetary incentive upon human lever pressing rate

Punishment and reward in children’s instrumental learning

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