The relative effects of alternating delayed reinforcement and alternating nonreinforcement on response speeds of children

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate kindergarten children's ability to anticipate reward conditions. In the first experiment delayed reward was alternated with immediate reward and one of two different stimuli was associated with each of the reward conditions. The performance of three groups, under different lengths of delay, was compared to a fourth, control group in which reward was immediate on all trials. The Ss failed to anticipate reward conditions. Instead, they responded consistently slower on trials following delay even though these were immediately rewarded trials. Length of delay had no differential effect. In the second experiment, alternating partial reward was compared with continuous reward. The Ss were able to anticipate nonreward and responses on those trials were slower.