Verbal Operant Conditioning Research Articles

Sensitivity to financial rewards and impression management links to smartphone use and dependence

Computational modeling and brain imaging studies suggest that sensitivity to rewards and behaviorist learning principles partly explain smartphone engagement patterns and potentially smartphone dependence. Responses to a questionnaire, and observational measures of smartphone use were recorded for 121 university students. Each participant was also tested with a laboratory task of reward sensitivity and a test of verbal operant conditioning. Twenty-three percent of the sample had probable smartphone addiction. Using multivariate regression, smartphone use, particularly the number of instant messenger services employed, was shown to be significantly and independently predicted by reward sensitivity (a positive relationship), and by instrumental conditioning (a negative relationship). However, the latter association was driven by a subset of participants who developed declarative knowledge of the response-reinforcer contingency. This suggests a process of impression management driven by experimental demand characteristics, producing goal-directed instrumental behavior not habit-based learning. No other measures of smartphone use, including the self-report scale, were significantly associated with the experimental tasks. We conclude that stronger engagement with smartphones, in particular instant messenger services, may be linked to people being more sensitive to rewarding stimuli, suggestive of a motivational or learning mechanism. We propose that this mechanism could underly problem smartphone use and dependence. It also potentially explains why some aspects of smartphone use, such as habitual actions, appear to be poorly measured by technology-use questionnaires. A serendipitous secondary finding confirmed that smartphone use reflected active self-presentation. Our ‘conditioning’ task-induced this behavior in the laboratory and could be used in social-cognition experimental studies.

Disordered eating behaviors and reward sensitivity

This research evaluated the extent to which reward sensitivity demonstrated associations with binge and purge behavior frequency. A verbal operant conditioning task designed to assess conditionability to reward cues was administered to a sample of 34 women who exhibited disordered eating patterns for at least 1 month prior to study participation. Reward sensitivity significantly correlated with the average weekly frequency of purge ( r=0.44) but not binge behaviors. These findings suggest that reward sensitivity has some associations with aspects of disordered eating and therefore may have relevance for theories on the maintenance of some forms of eating disorder-related behavior.

Impulsivity/sociability and reinforcement in verbal operant conditioning: A replication

The present investigation was designed to study the relationship between impulsivity/ sociability and modes of reinforcement in verbal operant conditioning. A randomized block design involving three levels of impulsivity/sociability (high, moderate and low) and two verbal reinforcement conditions (‘good’ and ‘poor’) was replicated 20 times. Two hundred and forty undergraduate and postgraduate female students (120 for impulsivity and 120 for sociability) were individually subjected to Taffel's verbal conditioning procedure. The study supports the following conclusions: (1) individuals with high scores on the impulsivity/sociability scale condition better with the rewarding reinforcer (‘good’) than with the punishing reinforcer (‘poor’); (2) the moderate scorers on the impulsivity/sociability scale condition comparably with both the rewarding and punishing reinforcers; (3) the high scorers on impulsivity/sociability as compared to low and moderate scorers on these scales condition better with the rewarding reinforcer; (4) the low scorers on the impulsivity scale as compared to high and moderate scorers condition better with the punishing reinforcer but such differences for low scorers on sociability are statistically nonsignificant.

Verbal operant conditioning as a function of extraversion and reinforcement

The present investigation was designed to study the effects of rewarding and punishing verbal reinforcers on verbal operant conditioning as a function of extraversion‐introversion. A randomized block design involving three levels of extraversion (extraverts, ambiverts and introverts) and two verbal reinforcement conditions (‘good’ and ‘poor’), was replicated 20 times. One hundred and twenty undergraduate and postgraduate female students were individually subjected to Taffel's verbal conditioning procedure. The study supports the following conclusions: (1) extraverts as compared to introverts and ambiverts condition better with the rewarding reinforcer (‘good’) while the introverts compared to extraverts and ambiverts condition better with the punishing reinforcer (‘poor’); (2) extraverts condition better with the rewarding reinforcer compared to the punishing one, whereas the introverts condition better with the punishing reinforcer compared to the rewarding one; (3) ambiverts condition comparably with both the rewarding and punishing reinforcers.

Verbal Operant Conditioning, Extinction Trials and Types of Awareness Statement

This paper investigated the hypothesis that the rate of reported awareness in verbal operant conditioning is influenced by the interpolation of extinction trials. It also examined a neglected group in the literature, the subjects who report awareness but who do not condition. This group can be as much as 40% of the aware subjects. It is suggested that the most feasible explanation for this group is that they bring different subjective interpretations to the experiment. The kind of awareness statements they offer should differ from aware conditioning subjects. Both hypotheses, the effect of extinction trials and the differing awareness statements of conditioners and non-conditioners, were confirmed. The latter finding is consistent with an unexpected result of the experiment, namely, the differential effect of extinction trials on conditioners and non-conditioners.

Type of Reinforcer, Problem-Solving Set, and Awareness in Verbal Conditioning

Research on awareness and performance in verbal operant conditioning has yielded considerable data. Centering on cognitive and noncognitive approaches to verbal conditioning (Greenspoon & Brownstein, 1967; Spielberger & de Nike, 1966), researchers have investigated the role of many influential variables, such as attitude toward reinforcement (Spielberger, Levin, & Shepard, 1962); need for social approval and motivation to receive reinforcement (Spielberger, Berger, & Howard, 1963); informative and incentive values of the reinforcing stimulus (Spielberger, Bernstein, & Ratliff, 1966); types of reinforcers (Koffer, Coulson, & Hammond, 1976; Simkins, 1963; Spielberger, Ratliff & Bernstein, 1966); and different conditioning tasks (Lanyon, 1964; Sidowski, 1954; De Nike, 1964; Yoshida, 1975). The controversy about the necessity of awareness for conditioning which also pervaded some experiments in human classical conditioning (Dawson & Furedy, 1976), has sometimes overshadowed the need for unconfounded experimental manipulation and more refined measures. For example, Kennedy (1971) shed a new light on the data when he showed that subjects' performance began to increase before full awareness of the contingencies. This was done by assessing subjects'

Reducing Racial Prejudice by Verbal Operant Conditioning

Free associations of adjectives to 10 pictures of black persons in various situations by two groups of 10 prejudiced white Southern student nurses in a verbal operant conditioning procedure was employed to reduce prejudice toward black people. Prejudice was measured by the California Ethnocentrism Scale, a 29-scale semantic differential of bipolar evaluative adjectives, and by a 5-min. sample of freely emitted adjectives. The 10 subjects in the two experimental groups and in the control group were first evaluated for prejudice in a group setting and then in the individual conditioning session, to determine their base level. During conditioning the two experimental groups were reinforced with “good” for every favorable adjective emitted, while the control group received none. As expected, positive adjectives increased and negative ones decreased, and scores on the semantic differential and the Ethnocentrism scale were consistent. Prejudiced subjects were ready to respond with a highly unfavorable attitude with reference peers and to give more favorable responses individually to the experimenter. After the individual conditioning of the positive concept, the tendency was to return to the original level of unfavorable responsiveness or to retain the original prejudiced attitude. This effect was called the “rho phenomenon” of concept change. The influence of social status and suggestibility on the “rho phenomenon” needs further research.

Personality, reinforcement and verbal operant conditioning

Gray's hypothesis of greater conditionability of individuals having high scores on both neuroticism and extraversion (N+E+) under rewarding conditions, and high scores on neuroticism and low scores on extraversion (N+E‐) under punishing conditions, was put to the test. Taffel's sentence completion task was used for determining the level of verbal operant conditioning. The analysis of variance and post hoc comparisons by the LSD test lent support to Gray's hypothesis.

The effects of value confrontation and reinforcement counseling on the career planning attitudes and behavior of adolescent males

An experiment was conducted to compare the relative effectiveness of a value confrontation procedure and a procedure based on verbal operant conditioning in enhancing career development attitudes and increasing the frequency of information-seeking behavior in rural adolescent males. Ninety subjects were identified as internally controlled or externally controlled based on their locus of control scores and then randomly assigned to one of the two experimental treatment groups or a control group. The value confrontation procedure involved developing an awareness of self-dissatisfaction about one's career planning and relating this self-dissatisfaction to the importance one gave to the values logical and responsible. These values had been identified empirically in this study as having a relationship to career planning. The reinforcement counseling treatment involved the interpretation of individual career maturity data followed by the verbal operant conditioning of responses indicative of career maturity. Post tests administered 7 weeks after the treatments showed that the value confrontation procedure resulted in significantly greater frequency of information seeking for internally controlled subjects when compared to the reinforcement counseling and control procedures. No treatment was significant in increasing the maturity level of career development attitudes.

Verbal operant conditioning without subject's awareness of reinforcement contingencies.

Verbal operant conditioning without subject's awareness of reinforcement contingencies.

Control of vocalization by use of a standardized set of verbal reinforcers

rn This investigation attempted to determine the legitimacy of verbal operant conditioning as an actual phenomenon by partially eliminating numerous inherent methodological problems present in other studies. A standardized videotaped presentation of E, automated circuitry, the operant paradigm and rigidly defined temporal response units that were easily and objectively detected and recorded, were employed. Regardless of diagnosis, Ss who obtained situational anxiety scores in the low anxious range were amenable to verbal conditioning. No verbal conditioning resulted for Ss who obtained situational anxiety scores in the high anxious range. The issue of awareness was minimized by implementing the present methodology. Verbal conditioning is a research technique emanating primarily from Skinnerian operant conditioning and clinical interest in verbal behaviour, especially as it occurs in psychotherapy (Krasner, 1967). The tremendous interest in verbal operant conditioning is evidenced by the appearance of at least five thorough reviews of the literature (Greenspoon, 1962; Krasner, 1958; Montouri, 1968; Salzinger, 1959; Williams, 1964). However, the legitimacy of the phenomenon of verbal conditioning is questioned by these authors as the equivocal, inconclusive and contradictory results reported appeared to be a function of the complexity of the phenomenon and inherent methodological problems.

Awareness in Verbal Operant Conditioning: Examination of Performance Quality Changes.

The hypothesis addressed in this study was that for every experimental condition, learning with awareness would occur. An experiment was conducted with use of a collating task that incorporated the awareness question into the design investigating the change in performance quality and quantity. Statistical evaluation of Dulany's awareness questionnaire suggested general unawareness of attempted verbal operant conditioning. There is some evidence suggesting that an actual change in performance quality and quantity is accompanied by awareness with use of operant conditioning procedures.

Relationships of extraversion-introversion to verbal operant conditioning for aware and unaware subjects.

Extraversion-Introversion was compared to verbal operant conditioning, separately for Ss aware of the response-reinforcement contingency and for Ss unaware. It was proposed that Eysenck's hypothesis which states that introverts condition more effectively than extraverts would hold only for unaware Ss. Both aware and unaware Ss conditioned. But there were no significant relationships between extraversion-introversion and conditioning, either for all Ss or for aware Ss or for unaware Ss. The hypothesis was not supported.

The Effect of Need Achievement on Verbal Operant Conditioning Using Achievement-Related Statements as Reinforcers

The Effect of Need Achievement on Verbal Operant Conditioning Using Achievement-Related Statements as Reinforcers

Verbal Operant Conditioning as a Measure of Value Strength: II. The Use of Values as Reinforced Response Classes

Verbal Operant Conditioning as a Measure of Value Strength: II. The Use of Values as Reinforced Response Classes

Verbal Operant Conditioning as a Measure of Value Strength: I

Verbal Operant Conditioning as a Measure of Value Strength: I

Type of Reinforcement and Generality in Verbal Operant Conditioning

Social approval and correctness reinforcement were compared, with a noncontingent reinforcement control group. Extinction trials were conducted either by the same E or by a different E. 5 Es, randomly selected from 10 available, generally were assigned 2 Ss in each of the resulting 6 conditions. The two types of reinforcement appeared to be equally effective with respect to effects on verbal operant conditioning ( p < .001), but social approval resulted in less generality than reinforcement for being correct. Ss receiving social approval exhibited significantly more rapid extinction in an altered stimulus situation with a different E ( p < .05). As social approval typically has been used, these results suggest why numerous previous verbal conditioning studies have failed to yield generalizable effects.

Factors Affecting Mediation of E-Bias Effects in Verbal Operant Conditioning

Three studies investigated the mediation of E-bias effects on the relationship between awareness and verbal conditioning. The hypotheses were tested that such effects are determined in part by: (i) the personality of E, (ii) E's knowledge of S's conditioning performance, and (iii) the closeness of contact between the biasing authority and Es being biased. Results for a Taffel-type conditioning task supported the last two hypotheses but not the first.

On awareness in verbal operant conditioning and discrepant results.

On awareness in verbal operant conditioning and discrepant results.

Discrimination, Generalization, and Awareness in Verbal Operant Conditioning

Discrimination, Generalization, and Awareness in Verbal Operant Conditioning