The study of choice and allocation has often focused on certain parameters of reinforcement, but rarely on historical variables. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential effects of gradual vs. abrupt teaching methods on future response allocation. A secondary goal was to see if the results of teaching-method manipulations might be correlated with the parameters that the teaching method produced, specifically unit costs, rate of reinforcement, or error rates. Results indicate that these teaching procedures can produce transient shifts in allocation, but not in a consistent direction. Neither unit cost nor rate or reinforcement alone can account for observed response allocation shifts after training. Researchers saw that subjects reliably shifted towards a manipulanda that produced higher rates of errors, therefore investigating the influence that error rate (or types of errors) may have on response allocation may aid in general teaching method preferences. Future research could focus on the combination of historical procedural variables and current variables that could determine response allocation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1985869 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Krilcich, Rachel AnnaSoo |
| Contributors | Becker, April, Ortu, Daniele, Vaidya, Manish |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | Text |
| Rights | Public, Krilcich, Rachel AnnaSoo, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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