The conditioned reflex as the explanation of habit formation: III. The operation of two higher-order reactions in close succession.

Abstract

The series of which this study l is the third part, has taken on two aspects, in a sense different, and yet capable of being confused. It has seemed wise to differentiate between these aspects at some length before proceeding to the discussion of the third study. It has been most convenient to do this in the way of a very brief summary of the series. The summary includes some of the major results of the series-even anticipating those of the study about to be reported.

The relationship between the conditioned response and conventional learning experiments.

“…That verbal behavior, once acquired, is important in further conditioning, especially in relation to voluntary processes, is stressed by Hunter and Hudgins (101) on the basis of Hudgins'(77) experiment in conditioning the pupillary response to verbal self-initiated stimuli. 30 Stephens (195,196,197) 31 and Rexroad (163) are endeavoring to determine whether or not conditioning principles apply in situations involving voluntary (instructed) responses. Rexroad is better satisfied than Stephens that conditioning principles are useful for predicting results in these experiments.…”

Differential characteristics of conditioned eyelid responses established by reflex and voluntary reinforcement.

“…A further differentiation between reflex-reinforced and voluntary-reinforced conditioned responses has been pointed out by Stephens (15). Subjects were instructed to respond to one signal by hitting a target with a stylus in the left hand, and to respond to a second signal by a similar movement with the right hand.…”

A critical review of the concept of set in contemporary experimental psychology.

“…They have recently taken the form of attempts to show that the voluntary quick-reaction employed in measuring reaction time can be conditioned to an indifferent stimulus or, otherwise stated, that a conditioned response can be set up using a voluntary act as the reinforcement (72). Experiments of this sort have been made by Rexroad (92,93), Wickens (115), Yacorzynski and Guthrie (121), Marquis and Porter (72), and Stephens (104).…”

“…However, in one of the sub-experiments calculated to hinder the subject from discriminating between the instructed and the extraneous stimulus, there was some evidence of an increase of these false reactions with time. The fifth experiment is too complicated to be described here and bears on the problem only incidentally (104).…”