Resistance to extinction following sequences of partial and continuous reinforcement in a human choice task.

Abstract

During acquisition, partial reinforcement was given either prior to, in the middle of, or following consistent reinforcement. Ss were 84 undergraduates. A group receiving only consistent reinforcement was used for comparison. Acquisition data indicated that it was possible to cause abrupt and significant changes in S"s response level by altering the schedule of reinforcement. Extinction data indicated that all 3 groups receiving partial reinforcement at some time during acquisition showed significantly more responses during the early and entire extinction period when compared to the group receiving no partial reinforcement. The group receiving partial following consistent reinforcement showed a significantly greater mean number of responses during the 1st 30 trials of extinction compared to any other group. There were no reliable differences among any of the 4 groups during the last 20 extinction trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)