The Automatic Action of Verbal Rewards and Punishments

Postman, Leo; Sassenrath, Julius M.

doi:10.1080/00221309.1961.9920464

Cited by 38 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The authors concluded that awareness mediated performance gains, and that conditioning occurred only after awareness. With regard to the theory of Postman and Sassenrath (1961) that awareness is both a result of past improvement (manifested in performance increments prior to awareness and thus is conditioning without awareness) and a condition of further improvement (even greater performance increments after verbalization of the con tingency) , Spielberger and DeNike argue that such a theory would not explain the absence of performance gains for unaware subjects nor the absence of performance gains for aware subjects on preawareness word blocks. It would appear to the present author that the Postman and Sassenrath position is not necessarily untenable because of the failure of aware subjects to show performance gains until the word block after which they wrote down their correct hypotheses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Awareness and the Operant Conditioning of a Cooperative Response

Vogler

1968

The Journal of Psychology

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on the other hand, holds that some conditioning occurs prior to aware ness and that awareness is both a result of past improvement and a condition of further improvement in conditioning performance. Im portant in generalizing about the role of awareness in conditioning is the fact that the present study was uniquely different from other studies of awareness in several ways. The reinforced response class was a physical one rather than a verbal one and involved the behavior of two individuals instead of one, candy instead of a verbal stimulus was used as the reinforcer, the experimental nature of the study was not apparent to the subjects, who were children rather than adults, and most importantly, the experimental design was unique among studies of awareness in providing a sensitive measure of the temporal relation ship of awareness to conditioning rate. The cooperative response was defined according to a four-dimensional scheme involving the sequential vs. non-sequential, latency, duration, and topography dimensions of the vii viii response. Three classes of verbal behavior were used to objectively define the requirements of awareness of the response-reinforcement contingency. The apparatus, the experimental procedure, and the method of recording behavioral observations is described. Ten pairs of children six to eight years of age served as subjects. On the basis of verbalizations during the experiment, five pairs were classified as aware and five as unaware. Only the aware subjects conditioned thus supporting the hypothesis that awareness is necessary for conditioning to occur. An increase in conditioning rate was observed just prior to awareness, and an even greater increase occurred follow ing awareness. These data support the Postman and Sassenrath position that awareness is both the result of past improvement and a condition of further improvement. Since all unaware subjects received some reinforcement and yet failed to become aware, the idea that the effects of reinforcement are "automatic," in the sense that reinforcement is a sufficient condition to bring about awareness, was not supported.The data suggest that reinforcement is a necessary condition for awareness to occur, and that other variables influencing awareness are partially correct hypotheses, total response rate, attention to the task, mutual compliance to test hypotheses, and the nature of the conditioning task. Each of these variables probably interacts with, or in some way is influenced by, reinforcement, instructions, and his torical variables. Manipulatable conditions which would enhance the liklihood of awareness, and hence conditioning, are: a response with a longer latency and a simpler topography; a restricted operant which would slow the total response rate and provide time between responses to observe the consequences of each response emitted; instructions which induce a problem-solving set. As a cognitive process which may be an essential mediating event in the conditioning of many human behaviors, a detailed knowledge of the proces...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Awareness and the Operant Conditioning of a Cooperative Response

Vogler

1968

The Journal of Psychology

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“…Postman and Sassenrath (1961) suggest that selective remforcement may automatically strengthen covert verbalizations of the contmgency They further suggest that such verbalization "may be considered at the same time a result of past improvement and a condition for further improvement" (Postman & Sassenrath, 1961, p. 124, italics theirs). Krasner and Ulhnann (1963, p 196) argue that "'awareness' is a class of coincidental responses which covary with learning as a function of situational variables", Kanfer and Marston (1962) present essentially the same view.…”

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confidence: 94%

“…ecent experiments m verbal conditiomng (DeNike, 1964, 1965, Spielberger, Bemstem, & Ratliff, 1966 have assessed subjects' verbalizations durmg the conditionmg tnals The results have shown that performance gams begm at the trial block on which subjects verbahze awareness of a response-reinforcement contmgency identical to, or positively correlated vi^th, the contmgency actually employed These results have been interpreted as mdicatmg that verbalized awareness m verbal conditionmg IS an mdex of conscious mediatmg processes (Ehilany, 1968, Spielberger & DeNike, 1966 However, it is possible that awareness of correct or correlated contmgencies emerges as a nonmediational correlate of the direct effects of reinforcement For example. Postman and Sassenrath (1961) suggest that selective remforcement may automatically strengthen covert verbalizations of the contmgency They further suggest that such verbalization "may be considered at the same time a result of past improvement and a condition for further improvement" (Postman & Sassenrath, 1961, p. 124, italics theirs). Krasner and Ulhnann (1963, p 196) argue that "'awareness' is a class of coincidental responses which covary with learning as a function of situational variables", Kanfer and Marston (1962) present essentially the same view.…”

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confidence: 99%

Accurate anticipation of reinforcement in verbal conditioning

DeNike

Leibovitz

1969

J Personality

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“…Previous findings on the relative performance effects of comments of approval and disapproval have been contradictory. In fact, two major reviews that use partially overlapping data arrive at discrepant conclusions: Kennedy and Willcutt (1964) conclude that praise improves performance more than blame, whereas Marshall (1965) concludes that negative statements following incorrect responses are more effective than positive statements following correct responses.Several authors (Bitterman, 1956;Brown, 1961;Cairns, 1963;Dinsmoor, 1950;Farber, 1955;Postman & Sassenrath, 1961) have emphasized the dual properties of conditioned reinforcers, including phrases of approval or disapproval. The dual properties are the motivational or drive properties (which are assumed to reduce some drive state, as a "need for approval"), and the cue or signal properties (which considers the informational value of the stimulus).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Several authors (Bitterman, 1956;Brown, 1961;Cairns, 1963;Dinsmoor, 1950;Farber, 1955;Postman & Sassenrath, 1961) have emphasized the dual properties of conditioned reinforcers, including phrases of approval or disapproval. The dual properties are the motivational or drive properties (which are assumed to reduce some drive state, as a "need for approval"), and the cue or signal properties (which considers the informational value of the stimulus).…”

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The Effects of Different Types of Teaching Methods and Verbal Feedback on the Performance of Beginning Readers

Nelson

1974

Journal of Reading Behavior

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Abstract. Initial reading acquisition was taught to 64 kindergarten children for 11 weeks utilizing a two x two x four factorial design. The two antecedent conditions were the Lippincott (phonics -Ph) and Scott-Foresman (sight recognition -SR) Series. The two consequent conditions were positive verbal feedback following correct reading responses (R-N) and negative verbal feedback following incorrect reading responses (N-W). Four experimenter-teachers (ET) were used. Utilizing standardized tests of reading achievement, it was found that Ph produced a reading response of letter-sound combinations, whereas SR produced recognition of a limited number of words. There were no consistent differences for the variables of teacher, IQ, or sex.The initial focus of behavior modification as applied to school settings was to manipulate the type of consequences (e.g., teacher and/or peer attention, high-probability responses a la the Premack principle, tokens) contingent upon social behaviors that were judged as appropriate or inappropriate to classrooms (see O'Leary & O'Leary, 1972, for an overview of this area). This focus is currently widening along two dimensions: to include academic as well as social behaviors, and to modify both of these types of behavior by manipulating antecedent as well as consequent conditions (Nelson, 1973).The present study, including reading within the framework of operant psychology (Bloom, 1973;Goldiamond & Dyrud, 1966), simultaneously investi-*This article is a summary of the author's doctoral dissertation at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The author is indebted: to her committee chairman, Alan O. Ross, for his assistance; to Sachem School District, for cooperation and subjects; to the Stony Brook students who participated in this investigation (Emily Davidson, Nancy Fenrick, Julie Heiman, Jerry Jed, Lynn Mofenson, Linda Nash, Linda Rudin Hay, Roger Shadlowsky, David Sheslow, May Tung, and Denise Whikehart); to the J. B. Lippincott Company for a discount; and to the Graduate School at Stony Brook for a grant-in-aid. Portions of this paper were presented at the Southeastern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, April, 1973. †Request reprints from the author, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina 27412. 306Journal of Reading Behavior 1974 VI, 3 gated the effects of manipulations of both antecedent and consequent conditions on the reading behavior of beginning readers. The antecedent conditions selected were two published series which utilized different methods of teaching reading; the consequent conditions were two types of verbal feedback from the reading instructors.Although the current study did compare two reading series, the Lippincott Basic Reading Program (1969) and the Scott-Foresman Basic Reading Program (1965) which respectively are examples of the phonics and sight recognition methods of teaching reading, this comparison was not made to add fuel to the "which is the best method" argument (Aukerman, 1971)...

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The Automatic Action of Verbal Rewards and Punishments

Cited by 38 publications

References 33 publications

Awareness and the Operant Conditioning of a Cooperative Response

Awareness and the Operant Conditioning of a Cooperative Response

Accurate anticipation of reinforcement in verbal conditioning

The Effects of Different Types of Teaching Methods and Verbal Feedback on the Performance of Beginning Readers

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