Carr, J. E., Bailey, J. S., Ecott, C. L., Lucker, K. D., & Weil, T. M. (1998).
On the effects of noncontingent delivery of differing magnitudes of reinforcement.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
31, 313-321.
We conducted a parametric analysis of response suppression
associated with different magnitudes of noncontingent
reinforcement (NCR). Participants were 5 adults with severe or
profound mental retardation who engaged in a manual response that
was reinforced on variable-ratio schedules during baseline.
Participants were then exposed to NCR via multielement and
reversal designs. The fixed- time schedules were kept constant
while the magnitude of the reinforcing stimulus was varied across
three levels (low, medium, and high). Results showed that
high-magnitude NCR schedules produced large and consistent
reductions in response rates, medium- magnitude schedules
produced less consistent and smaller reductions, and
low-magnitude schedules produced little or no effect on
responding. These results suggest that (a) NCR affects responding
by altering an establishing operation (i.e., attenuating a
deprivation state) rather than through extinction, and (b)
magnitude of reinforcement is an important variable in
determining the effectiveness of NCR.
DESCRIPTORS: noncontingent reinforcement, satiation,extinction,
reinforcement magnitude