Schedule-Controlled Responding of Two Persons Under a Single Schedule of Reinforcement

Abstract

In four experiments, dyad members made noncompetitive responses for a mutual reinforcer. Satisfying reinforcement requirements delivered a single reinforcer (points) to both subjects as a team. The purpose of this research was two-fold: First, to discover the degree to which individual behavior is sensitive to team-like contingencies, and second, to ask how the social context itself can modulate the effects of team-like contingencies on individual behavior. Variables manipulated included fixed-ratio size, conjunctive reinforcement, reinforcer magnitude, and social context. Results showed that (1) individual subjects responded consistently in an alternating all-or-none pattern at lower FR values, (2) experimental contingencies embedded within the FR schedule exerted powerful control over individual responding, (3) changes in the reinforcer magnitude also radically altered how each subject responded, and (4) changing the social context to not allow subjects to converse did not significantly alter subjects’ behavior. These results suggest that team-like contingencies can control individual patterns of behavior and that particular social aspects of the environment do not necessarily mediate individual behavior in such situations.