Effects of rules and self-rules on schedule performance in two-person experiments

Nakamura Satoshi, Okouchi Hiroto

doi:10.4992/jjpsy.89.17317

<p>Verbal descriptions of reinforcement contingencies (rules) often exert control over human behavior. The present study investigated how rules affected behaviors when two participants partially communicated with each other during an experiment. Mouse clicks by undergraduate students produced points depending on a multiple fixedratio 50 differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate 10-s schedule. During interruptions in the multiple schedules, participants were asked to describe the schedule contingencies, and then a speaker read the rules to one of a pair of participants (a listener). Discrimination ratios for the listeners were significantly higher than those for participants who were not asked to describe the rules or listened to other’s rules. When both schedules changed to fixedinterval 10-s, all groups were sensitive to schedule changes. The results suggest that the acquisition of scheduleappropriate behavior was affected by instructions even though the instructions were given by individuals other than the experimenter and were imperfect. The results also suggest that the effects of rules and self-rules can be replicated in two-person experiments.</p>

Effects of rules and self-rules on schedule performance in two-person experiments

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