Comparison of three response-elimination procedures following FI and VI reinforcement training in humans

Abstract

In the present experiment, college students were trained to press a key according to a FI or VI reinforcement schedule and were then shifted to one of three response-elimination procedures: Fixed omission training, variable omission training, or extinction training. Results indicated that both omission training procedures eliminated the keypress response significantly more efficiently than did extinction training; however, the effects of the two omission training techniques did not differ significantly from each other. In addition, the effect of the initial reinforcement training schedule was not significant, nor were there any significant interactions.