Operant response requirements affect touching of visual reinforcement by infants

Abstract

Studies of instrumental learning in infants have been concerned with negative transfer between noncontingent and contingent learning experiences, sparking debate about the value of responsive environments and calling for measures beyond operant performance to shed light on the underlying perception of contingency. The present studies focused on contingent versus non-contingent stimulation and their effect on attention and consummatory responses as unlearned features of the infant’s interaction with stimuli. In each experiment the dependent variable was tactile behavior directed toward pictures, and the independent variable was the type of contingency controlling the pictures. In Experiment 1, 12- to 18- month-old infants were tested in the laboratory using a modified discrete-trial operant procedure in which a touch-sensitive video screen served as both a projection surface and a touch-recording device. Infants touched contingent slides significantly more often than noncontingent slides. Experiment 2 extended this effect to fixed-ratio 1 (FR-1) versus fixed-ratio 2 (FR-2) schedules of reinforcement. A second group of 12- to 18-month-old infants showed a similar pattern; they touched the FR-2 slides significantly more often than the FR-1 slides. These findings indicate that factors other than operant behavior vary as a function of the degree of contingency in an instrumental situation, and hint at possible cognitive processes that compare contingency “rules” governing the responsiveness of a changing environment.