Undergraduates participating in experiments late in the semester generally perform more poorly on demanding tasks and withdraw more often than those participating early. To investigate effects of task aversiveness, some participants were instructed to choose brief cartoon reinforcement with a long time-out while others were instructed to choose…

Students repeatedly chose between brief reinforcement (cartoon viewing) followed by a long time-out and extended reinforcement followed by a brief time-out. They infrequently chose the former schedule, which they rated as "unpleasant." Then they were instructed to choose only this subjectively aversive schedule. When participants were informed…

Three experiments examined the effect of motivational variables on timing in the peak procedure. In Experiment 1, rats received a 60-s peak procedure that was coupled with long-term, between-phase changes in reinforcer magnitude. Increases in reinforcer magnitude produced a leftward shift in the peak that persisted for 20 sessions of training. In…

Results of longitudinal studies suggest that the stability of preferences varies across individuals, although it is unclear what variables account for these differences. We extended this work by conducting periodic assessments of preference for leisure activities over 3 to 6 months with 10 adults with developmental disabilities. Although previous…

The purpose of this study was to perform pilot research upon two normal children aged six years (an age midway between complete absence of time conceptualization and maturation of time concepts) in order to chart the characteristic responses within a conditioning paradigm. Previous literature in the field is reviewed for the purpose of providing a…

Summarizes three experiments examining the ways that various forms of feedback influence children's progress in learning to tell time through computer-based training. The experiments compared different forms of feedback as well as delays in their presentations. Reviews related literature and includes statistical and tabular data. (MJP)

This set of studies explored the influence of temporal context across multiple-chain and multiple-successive-encounters procedures. Following training with different temporal contexts, the value of stimuli sharing similar reinforcement schedules was assessed by presenting these stimuli in concurrent probes. The results for the multiple-chain…

Investigated the hypothesis that 10-year-old children will tend to perceive delayed outcomes as being of lower value than immediately expected ones, with the effect being stronger for negative outcomes. Good- and bad-tasting foods were used as stimuli. (SDH)

The results of this study confirm the predicted relationship between close self-parental distance and internal control of reinforcement for both males and females. (Author/WY)

Although understanding how causal attributions for performance develop is important to attribution theory, little research has been done on this topic. To explore changes in attributions during task performance for both actors and observers, 90 female undergraduates participated in a procedure in which they received either 80 percent or 20 percent…

We previously showed that prenatal choline supplementation could increase the precision of timing and temporal memory and facilitate simultaneous temporal processing in mature and aged rats. In the present study, we investigated the ability of adult rats to selectively control the reinforcement-induced resetting of an internal clock as a function…

This discussion of how conditions of the recipient can affect effectiveness of feedback presents an overview of the topic (feedback functions and feedback about what, when, by whom, and types), and discusses factors affecting formative feedback, i.e., recipients' discrimination repertoires and self-monitoring behavior development in…

The effects of three experimental treatments on second and third grade, disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged children's choices between an immediate smaller and deferred larger reward were investigated in a 2 x 3 factorial design. In one condition, subjects were required to earn the larger reinforcement by working during the delay period. A second…