A Study of Operant Conditioning under Delayed Reinforcement in Early Infancy

Abstract

MILLAR, W. STUART. A Study of Operant Conditioning under Delayed Reinforcement in Early Infancy. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 1972, 37 (2, Serial No. 147). The paucity of definitive data on operant conditioning under delayed reinforcement in the preverbal infant stimulated the present research. A series of four interrelated experiments was undertaken with 4-7-month-old infants in order to examine the temporal parameters involved in response-feedback contingency integration. An initial experiment demonstrated operant acquisition of an instrumental "hand-pulling" response in 4-8-month-old infants. Moreov;er, the data suggested an age difference in sensitivity to responsecontingent feedback. Experiments II, III, and IV were designed to examine the temporal span of integration in 6-7-month-old infants using delayed perceptual reinforcement within the free-operant framework. Experiment II demonstrated clear-cut response acquisition under immediately contingent feedback, limited acquisition under 1-second and 2-second delayed-contingent feedback but no acquisition under 3-second and noncontingent feedback. In Experiment III a more exhaustive design incorporated more stringent control procedures. Contingent and noncontingent conditions produced characteristic divergent effects. The effect of 1-second and 2-second delays was less clear-cut than in Experiment II. Experiment IV was designed primarily to clarify the discrepancy between Experiments II and III by providing extended exposure to the delayed-feedback scheduling. Under this condition, reliable acquisition occurred under 1-second and 2-second delayed feedback but not under the 3-second delay condition. Prior exposure to noncontingent feedback had a facilitating effect on subsequent response acquisition under 1-second and 2second delayed feedback but not under 3-second delayed feedback. The consistent effect achieved with contingent, noncontingent, delayed reinforcement, and, in particular, the suppression, recovery, and facilitation effects of noncontingent stimulation are discussed in relation to our understanding of how infants process contingent information. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.35 on Fri, 02 Sep 2016 05:30:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms