SHAPING OF THREE‐MAN TEAMS ON A MULTIPLE DRL‐DRH SCHEDULE USING COLLECTIVE REINFORCEMENT¹

Abstract

Five three-man teams were conditioned to a multiple DRL-DRH schedule during five daily sessions of 3 hr each. The teams were conditioned on the basis of their cumulative response rate regardless of the contributions of individual members. Two individually conditioned Ss were run under a similar schedule for comparison. Although all teams demonstrated some differentiation of response rate under the two legs of the schedule, this difference was not achieved as rapidly, nor was it as stable, as the differentiation in rates achieved in individually conditioned Ss. Team members displayed a variety of response rates as a result of collective team conditioning. Often, individual response rates interfered with obtainment of team reinforcement. The individual team members displayed little S(D) control in comparison with the individually conditioned Ss. In general the results suggest that collective reinforcement is highly inefficient in comparison with procedures employing individual feedback.

Team Training and Evaluation Strategies: A State-of-Art Review

“…Egertnan, et al [25,26] Nebeker, et al [65] Glaser, et al [33] Burnstein & Wolff [15] Klauo & Glaser [51,52,54] Wolff, et al [90,92] Short, et al [77] Glanzer [34] Cockrell [18] Cockrell & Sadacca [19] Burnstein & Wolff [15] Kl^us, et al [53. Marra [61] Wolff, et al [90,92] Kanarick [49] Alexander & Cooperband [1] I s ... it appears essential that team practice result in clear and immediate reinforcement following each correct team response; practice in the absence of team reinforcement for criterion-level performance is more than likely to lead to a decrement in team proficiency [54].…”

Self-evaluation in a simulated team

“…In addition. self-evaluation may mediate the performance effects of team feedback (Burnstein & Wolff, 1964;Johnston & Nawrocki, 1967;Zajonc. 1962).…”

SHAPING AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR IN RESTRAINED MONKEYS1

“…Using positive reinforcement, several different animals and behaviors have been studied (e.g., Baer, Peterson, and Sherman, 1967;Burnstein and Wolff, 1964;Dews, 1960;Levin and Shapiro, 1962;Levison, Ferster, Niemann, and Findley, 1964;Reynolds, 1963;Skinner, 1962;and Wenzel, Baldwin, and Tschirgi, 1964) and a number of parameters discussed (e.g., Skinner, 1958;and Morrill, 1961). But few explicit extensions of the shaping technique to situations involving negative reinforcement or punishment are found in the literature.…”