Conjugate reinforcement of infant exploratory behavior
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
The operant response rate of 10-week-old infants tripled within the first 6 minutes of conjugate reinforcement of foot thrusts, whereas controls receiving identical but noncontingent visual and somesthetic stimulation did not alter response rate throughout the experimental session.
Abstract
The operant response rate of 10-week-old infants tripled within the first 6 minutes of conjugate reinforcement of foot thrusts, whereas controls receiving identical but noncontingent visual and somesthetic stimulation did not alter response rate throughout the experimental session. All infants receiving the conjugate procedure showed performance sensitive to the reinforcement contingencies for the 27-minute test period; four observations over an extended 46-minute session showed high and stable response rates prior to re-extinction after 42 minutes of continuous testing. The results are interpreted in terms of the feedback characteristics of the procedure.