Karl D. Zapf

Publication Date

1985

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Senkowski, Peter C.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Psychology

LCSH

Conditioned response

Abstract

A direct comparison between classical and instrumental conditioning paradigms under similar conditions was made by manipulating the contingencies upon which reinforcement was delivered. Forty-eight, approximately 100-day-old, male hooded rats were placed on either a continuous or partial reinforcement schedule in one of three conditioning procedures: classical—5 s interstimulus interval (ISI), instrumental—immediate reinforcement upon criterial response within the ISI, and instrumental— reinforcement delayed until ISI termination. When instrumental groups were compared, response latencies indicated that delayed versus immediate reinforcement led to inferior performance during both acquisition and extinction. However, comparison under equated ISIs in the classical and instrumental with delayed reinforcement groups found that acquisition performance and resistance to extinction were not affected by whether reinforcement was response contingent or stimulus contingent. Reinforcement schedule failed to differentiate groups in acquisition asymptotic performance. A partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) was evidenced only under the instrumental- immediate reinforcement contingency. The results challenge the theoretical usefulness of a dichotomy between classical and instrumental paradigms based on hypothesized differences in the learning process.

Comments

Bibliography: pages [55]-64.

Extent

vii, 68 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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