Nonsocial Reinforcement Research Articles

Social Learning Theory and Adolescent Cigarette Smoking: A Longitudinal Study

We specify causal models of the learning process implied in Akers’ (1977) social learning theory for the initiation and maintenance of adolescent cigarette smoking. Path analyses of data from a three-year panel study of junior and senior high school students indicate that the theory is more effective in accounting for maintenance (or cessation) of cigarette smoking than in explaining initiation to cigarette smoking. Most important, our measures of social and nonsocial reinforcement mediate the effect of differential association on smoking as social learning theory predicts.

Social Isolation and Reinforcer Effectiveness: A Test of Three Theories

Summary Various aspects of the social isolation experience have been proposed to explain increased reinforcer effectiveness on a learning task following brief social isolation. Ss have been young children, however, and investigations have involved unfamiliar Es and experimental rooms, which procedure may have been emotionally arousing and itself responsible, rather than the social isolation experience, for results previously reported. With an E and experimental rooms well known to all Ss, it was hoped to avoid significantly arousing them. The Ss were 36 boys and girls, age 7 1/2 to 9 1/2 years, assigned to one of three social isolation conditions, and socially or nonsocially reinforced on a subsequent marble-dropping task. None of the social isolation conditions had differential effects on response rates to reinforcement, and no differential effectiveness was found between social and nonsocial reinforcement. It was concluded that effects previously attributed to aspects of the social isolation experience per se may be explicable in terms of the emotionally arousing procedure of using unfamiliar Es and experimental rooms.

Effects of Social Satiation on Efficacy of Social and Nonsocial Reinforcers

Summary The social deprivation-satiation effect is interpreted in terms of the perceived contingencies of the S-E interaction and the attributions made by S on that basis. According to this interpretation, the children are satiated with E and not with the stimuli. It was predicted that satiation with social stimuli would affect to the same degree performance for social and nonsocial reinforcers. Middle-class second-grade boys and girls (N = 40) were subjected to a 10-minute satiation treatment, in which the stimulus word Yqfeh (“Good” in Hebrew) was emitted by E two or 20 times. The treatment was followed by a 75-item binary discrimination task, in which correct responses were reinforced either with Yafeh or with a plastic token. A significant satiation effect was found for both social and nonsocial reinforcement. These results are in conflict with other studies reporting no social satiation effect for nonsocial reinforcement. In these studies the nonsocial reinforcement was not administered by E, but dis...

Nonsocial reinforcement of infants' vocalizations.

Nonsocial reinforcement of infants' vocalizations.

Effectiveness of social and nonsocial rein forcers in a probability learning task

Research in recent years has shown that performance reinforcers become more effective than person reinforcers as a person grows older and that, at least with children, social reinforcement is more effective than nonsocial in motor and probability learning tasks. This study tested the maturity hypothesis, examined social vs nonsocial reinforcement in probability learning, and investigated order of presentation of both social and nonsocial reinforcers. Results were: (1) person reinforcers are equally as effective as performance reinforcers, (2) social reinforcement is more effective than nonsocial in probability learning, and (3) order of presentation in social-nonsocial reinforcement is crucial.

INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF INFORMATIONAL AND AFFECTIVE COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL AND NONSOCIAL REINFORCERS ON INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT CHILDREN

Hypotheses related to a social drive theory of dependence were evaluated in 3 experiments. First, dependent and independent children were socially reinforced with combinations of informational and affective components of social reinforcers and a nonsocial reinforcer. As expected, performance of dependent Ss deteriorated under discrepant affect and information, indicating greater responsiveness to the more socially affective component. Independent Ss performed well under social reinforcement, but unexpectedly performed poorly under nonsocial reinforcement. 2 experiments investigated reasons for the latter finding. 1 investigated whether Ss lacked motivation. This was not supported. The final experiment tested and supported a contrast effect explanation. The Ss performed better under the nonsocial reinforcer when it was preceded by negatively than by positively reinforcing pretreatment.

TEST ANXIETY AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL AND NONSOCIAL REINFORCEMENT IN CHILDREN

Third- and fourth-grade children, divided into low- and high-test anxious groups, performed on a probability learning task. Reinforcement consisted of either social approval or nonsocial information feedback. Contrary to prediction, choice of the more frequently reinforced stimulus was not affected by anxiety in interaction with type of reinforcement. Affecting this response measure was reinforcement condition, with social exceeding nonsocial reinforcement; and sex of E in interaction with reinforcement condidition, male Es being more effective under social reinforcement than female Es, with no difference between Es as a function of sex under nonsocial reinforcement.

Test Anxiety and the Effectiveness of Social and Nonsocial Reinforcement in Children

Test Anxiety and the Effectiveness of Social and Nonsocial Reinforcement in Children

ALONENESS AND TOGETHERNESS AS DRIVE CONDITIONS IN CHILDREN1

ABSTRACTIn order to examine the effects of aloneness (social deprivation) and togetherness (social satiation) on the subsequent responsiveness of children to reinforcers, younger and older Ss were socially deprived or satiated and then exposed to either positive or negative, social or nonsocial reinforcement The findings indicate that socially deprived children are indifferent to the valence of the subsequent reinforcement, so long as it is social. Socially satiated children are subsequently most responsive to nonsocial reinforcement (or pure information). The findings are more consistent with a drive than an anxiety interpretation of social deprivation. Additional findings indicate that younger children respond more to negative reinforcement, while older children show a strong preference for positive reinforcement. The results are examined for their implications for theories of social drives, and for the limitations they set on the development of problem‐solving behavior.

The effect of brief social deprivation on social and nonsocial reinforcement.

The effect of brief social deprivation on social and nonsocial reinforcement.

Experimental analysis of social reinforcement: terms and methods.

A set of operational and functional terms useful in describing social behavior is defined. New methods of directly recording and programing social rein-forcers are briefly described. The emergent properties of social over nonsocial reinforcement require new terms and methods and a higher order discipline.

Developmental change in the relative values of social and non-social reinforcement.

Developmental change in the relative values of social and non-social reinforcement.