PROJECTOR SLIDE CHANGING AND FOCUSING AS OPERANT REINFORCERS

Uninstructed subjects choose to view, in sharp focus where possible, projected visual images in preference to various simpler auditory and visual stimuli (e.g., buzzers of flashing lights). The rate of responding on the lever rapidly increased above the operant level (projector inoperative) even tho...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior 1967-09, Vol.10 (5), p.479-484
Main Authors: Benton, Richard G., Mefferd Jr, Roy B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Audiovisual Aids
Conditioning, Operant
Extinction, Psychological
Humans
Male
Reaction Time
Reinforcement (Psychology)
Visual Perception
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Uninstructed subjects choose to view, in sharp focus where possible, projected visual images in preference to various simpler auditory and visual stimuli (e.g., buzzers of flashing lights). The rate of responding on the lever rapidly increased above the operant level (projector inoperative) even though the stimuli were nonsense syllables. When focusing also was made contingent on responses, the subjects promptly started sharpening the focus of legible but blurred nonsense syllables. When the visual material was colored landscape scenes, the rates of slide‐changing generally decreased, because of increased viewing time relative to the nonsense syllables, at the same time that the latencies of focusing decreased. Both the sharpness of focus and the total time spent with the image in sharp focus increased greatly with the colored slides, establishing that the subjects were under control of the stimulus events. Extinction of both responses occurred very rapidly when the controls became inoperative.
ISSN:0022-5002
1938-3711
DOI:10.1901/jeab.1967.10-479