Abstract
A study was run to determine if correct responses and response speeds on free choice trials would vary with changes in the ratio of rewarded to nonrewarded ( R N ) forced trials in a two-stimulus discrimination learning task. The Ss were 112 3- to 5-year-old children. The task involved learning to select the correct 1 of 2 differently colored cars and rolling it down a runway. Four blocks of 6 forced trials were interspersed among 4 blocks of 4 free choice trials. Sixteen Ss were randomly assigned to each of the following forced trial block R N groups: 0 6 , 1 5 , 2 4 , 3 3 , 4 2 , 5 1 , 6 0 . Substantiating previous findings, correct responses were an inverse linear function of the size of R N . While R N groups did not differ significantly in their response speeds on free choice trials, Ss did respond faster on forced than on free choice trials, particularly among the intermediate R N groups (i.e., 2 4 , 3 3 , 4 2 ).
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