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This paper examines three different aspects of effectiveness of advertising communication. First, how does a specific advertising communication get distorted in the consumer's mind, what are the dimensions of distortion and what factors produce the cognitive distortion. Second, how does advertising influence the consumer choice process? Two mechanisms called persuasion and reinforcement are discussed and the underlying processes of influence and tactics are explored. Third, how does advertising influence consumption behavior? Two mechanisms called reminder precipitation are discussed and the underlying processes and tactics are explored. Finally, the paper discusses a sequential linkage among the four mechanisms of advertising effectiveness and gives opinions on the pervasiveness of advertising through each mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison of pay variables suggested by reinforcement, expectancy, and equity theories as predictors to a measure of global satisfaction is presented. Equity and expectancy variables provided predictive capabilities though equity seemed somewhat more powerful. Reinforcement provided no predictive capability by itself. A model incorporating these findings is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mathematical model for examining the conditions under which individuals innovate or try new things was tested. In earlier research the model had been validated in a zero-cost condition. This replication raised the costs so that the cost-to-rewards ratio was .25. The four main variables of the model were current success level, target success level, costs of trying new things, and rewards for successful performance. A well-defined innovation boundary was found to exist at this cost-to-rewards ratio, and individuals behaved as predicted by their position with respect to the boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research tests the concept of style of rule enforcement as a function of the reciprocities multiplier advanced by Alvin W. Gouldner. The analogy is drawn between the reciprocities multiplier and partial reinforcement. The lack of enforcement of bureaucratic rules is considered to be a reward factor for conforming behavior by subordinates and should act to elicit reciprocity from subordinates. Four experimental conditions were established in a laboratory experiment: constant rule enforcement, partial enforcement, no enforcement, and laissez-faire. Group effectiveness was found to be highest under constant and partial enforcement. This is interpreted as a greater propensity to reciprocate superiors actions under partial enforcement and, in general, seems to support Gouldner's hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of operant psychology in shaping behavior and learning. It has been found that effects help in the development of specific behaviors. Operant model is of great importance for physical education teachers and coaches. Operant psychology analyzes skill acquisition on the basis of the interaction between a performer and the environment, without considering intervening variables. Reinforcement of the learning patterns depend on time intervals and performers responses. Reinforcement is divided into two types: fixed and variable. A scientific analysis of the environmental variables can be done for skill acquisition. Topology and magnitude of a response are critical factors for the development of skilled behavior.

The article presents an opinion on feedback and its importance for improving performance. Psychologists working in the area of human performance explained feedback as providing error information which can be explained further as provided information that made possible the comparison between output and a reference or standard. It also elaborated on the three main effects of feedback on human behavior which include motivation, regulating, and reinforcement. The types of feedback, modes of feedback, description of feedback, and the application of feedback in physical education were also discussed.

Two groups of subjects served in a probabilistic discrimination experiment where the stimuli contained four binary dimensions and the individual stimuli varied in IT values. One group of subjects could use either individual cues (dimensions) which varied in their validity, combinations of cues, or the entire stimulus pattern as the basis of responding, but the other could only use the entire stimulus pattern. The performance of the first group was superior. More detailed examination of the data and fits of several different types of models to the data support the conclusion that subjects in the first group used primarily the single most valid dimension or perhaps the combination of the two most valid dimensions as the basis for responding. An expectancy model presented by Castellan and Edgell fit the data from both groups quite well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal experiments in which the opportunity to aggress was positively reinforcing are surveyed, with attention paid to field and laboratory reports on play and play fighting. A distinction is drawn between ways in which aggressive behavior may be elicited and factors which increase or decrease the probability that aggression will be emitted. Since aggression may be emitted and may also be reinforcing, the possibility that aggressive behavior may be self-reinforcing is mentioned. In addition to positive reinforcement. consequences of aggressive behavior are presented. These include punishment, removal of a noxious stimulus, feeding, arousal, and disinhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the operant conditioning of sustained visual fixation among hyperactive children with severe retardation. The relative preferences of each hyperactive, severely retarded children for a set of stimulus objects were evaluated objectively before using the objects as discriminant stimuli in an operant program aimed at increasing the duration of visual fixation by using social and edible reinforcers.

The article examines the reduction of stereotypic responding of retarded persons through differential reinforcement of behavior. As an alternative to punishment and extinction, the differential reinforcement of other behavior procedure seem to be acceptable for some situations. The prevalence of repetitious, seemingly nonfunctional behavior was also observed in many institutionalized retarded individuals.

The article evaluates the effect of social reinforcement and knowledge of results on the accuracy motor task performance of educable mentally retarded (EMR) children. The study shows that the motor performance of EMR children improved in all social reinforcement conditions to a greater degree when knowledge of results was present. Thus, the study pointed out the importance of taking into consideration the motivational disposition of the subject while performing in an accuracy motor task.

The article examines the reinforcement program that aims to eliminate the stereotyped self-stimulation by retarded adults. Results show that there is a reduction in self-stimulation of about two-thirds of retarded adults who participated in the program. In addition, the program in combination with the overcorrection procedure, eliminated the self-stimulation by retarded adults thereafter.

The article focuses on a study to determine the effectiveness of contingent music activity in modifying self-destructive behavior and stereotyped behavior, which interface with learning among retarded children. It mentions that operant conditioning procedures were used to minimize interfering behavior and to maximize learning procedures in children. It mentions that reinforcement contingency was applied to both behaviors.

The article focuses on the study to determine the effectiveness of music as a positive reinforcer to reduce complaining behavior in human being. It mentions that the reinforcement was based on the differential reinforcement of low rates (DRL) shedule. It states that frequency of behavior in patients decrease when they were instructed about the contingencies.

Pigeons responded in a situation in which a response on key B could be followed by reinforcement if a response on key A preceded it by 10 sec. A-to-B responses with intervals of greater than 10 sec. duration were reinforced on a random ratio schedule. The effects of a conditioned stimulus terminating in response-independent reinforcement wore assessed against this baseline. Two levels of response-independent reinforcement (6 or 10 sec. hopper access) and two conditioned stimulus durations (15 mm. and 3 mm.) were used. Except for the combination of the 3 mm. conditioned stimulus with the 6 sec. response-independent reinforcement, all other combinations produced a suppression of A-to-B responding during the conditioned stimulus. Concomitantly, the number of correct (i.e. > 10 sec.) responses, and in some cases the percentage of total responses that were correct, were reduced. All of these effects were seen most clearly using the conditioned stimulus of shorter duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that attempts to determine whether the syntactic errors children make while learning a second language are due to native language interference or to developmental cognitive strategies as has been found in first language acquisition. Children do not simply imitate adult speech, they structure it and create rules of their own that are simpler than adult rules. The errors children make while learning certain structures of English as a second language are similar to those made by children learning English natively. In short, overwhelming research evidence drawn from the actual speech of children learning English as a second language shows that children do not use their first language habits in the process of learning the syntax of their new language. Since most of the syntactic errors discovered in children's second language speech are indistinguishable from those in first language acquisition, the mismatch between the child's developing forms and the developed forms of adult grammar will also diminish without the help of explicit instruction, positive reinforcement of correct structures or correction of incorrect structures.

6 developmentally delayed infants (11-22 months) were tested to determine whether vocalizations could be differentially modified by operant procedures with familiar (mother) and novel (experimenter) reinforcing agent. Each infant participated In 2 10-min sessions daily for 2 14-day periods each, with 3 days of baseline, 5 days of reinforcement, 3 days of extinction, and 3 days of reinstatement. During the first 14 days the reinforcing agent was either a familiar or novel adult. During the second 14 days the procedure was repeated with the other adult acting as the reinforcing agent. The results indicated that the vocalizations were under control, that familiar and novel agents were equally effective as reinforcing agents, and that order of presenting agents was not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A visual discrimination task was administered to 128 7-8- year-olds. The 3-factorial design involved reinforcement (candy vs. light flash), instructions (complete vs. minimal prior definition of response-adequacy meaning of reinforcer), and SES (upper vs. lower). Analyses yielded tentative support for the prediction that with full prior instructions lower SES subjects would perform equally well under both material and signal reinforcers, but that with minimal prior instructions the lower SES performance under the signal condition would suffer. Support was also found for the prediction that upper SES subjects would perform equally well under all instructions versus reinforcement conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was hypothesized that socialization within an achievement-oriented culture would encourage children to adjust the amount of contingent sell-reward according to the length and difficulty of a task. Second-grade children completed long-easy, long-difficult, short-easy, and short-difficult versions of 3 tasks and set their own amount of reward following each. Long tasks were judged to merit greater amounts of reward than shorter ones, but the effect of difficulty varied across tasks. It is proposed that an additional factor, namely, the quality or accuracy of performance, was also governing level of self-reward. Individual differences in amount of sell-reward were consistent across tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of locus of control provides a useful means of measuring individual differences in the extent to which reinforcement is viewed as primarily a consequence of one's own behavior (internal locus of control) or as primarily a consequence of such forces as chance, fate, or powerful others (external locus of control). The present research attempts to examine the relationship between locus of control and the perception of choice. It seems plausible that internals may be more sensitive than externals to whether or not a decision situation embodies an element of choice. That is, the internal may be more sensitive to whether or not characteristics of the options permit a sense of freedom of choice. In general, sensitivity to the possibility of choice in a decision situation may be quite useful to the internal, it may actually increase the probability that he can act in a manner so as to obtain a desired outcome or avoid an undesired outcome. This analysis leads to the expectation that internals' perception of choice generally will be high and relatively differentiated as a function of characteristics of the choice options, whereas externals' perception of choice generally will be low and relatively undifferentiated as a function of characteristics of the choice options.

This article aims to test the specific hypothesis that girls with a male sex-gender identification, as defined by perceived similarity to their fathers, will experience motivational problems in direct competition with males. The article also explores the possible patterns of relationship between sex-gender identification, several role variables, achievement motivation variables, and achievement behavior. This study includes 51 female and 35 male undergraduates enrolled in an introductory psychology course at Emory University. The average ages of the females (18.5 years) and males (18.6 years) reflect the primarily freshman composition of the class. Emory students are almost exclusively white and from middle-class socio-economic circumstances. The one developmental variable Included in the present investigation was perceived parent-child similarity. This variable was found to be a significant index of the girl's susceptibility to vicarious experience of reinforcement imposed upon a male peer and is proposed to be an indicator of sex-gender identification of the daughter. Perceived parent-child similarity was measured by the Identification Scale, a psychometric procedure which determines the perceived similarity between the offspring and her two parents across 15 normal personality variables.

Recent researches have hypothesized that Externals should perceive a communicator relatively low in prestige as an unlikely source of reinforcement and should, therefore, be more readily persuaded by a source high in prestige. Internals, because they believe themselves to be more in control of potentially reinforcing events, should be influenced equally and to a lesser extent by both high and low prestige communicators. A more recent experiment has been reported in which the researchers tested the hypothesis that Externals would conform significantly more than Internals to both high and low influence messages. Influence was defined in terms of how strongly a subject was urged to agree with a message about grading procedures. The Externals reacted as predicted, moving in a conforming direction after exposure to either level of influence. Internals, on the other hand, manifested reactance to the high influence message and were unmoved by the low influence message. Source credibility was not manipulated in this experiment, so that the results offer only indirect confirmation of the relationships reported.

Researcher R. De Charms stated, "man's primary motivational propensity is to be effective in producing changes in his environment. Man strives to be a causal agent, to be the primary locus of causation for, or the origin of, his behavior; he strives for personal causation." De Charms differentiated between origins, people who perceive their behavior to be determined by their own choosing, and Pawns, people who perceive their behavior to be determined by external forces. The distinction is, of course, continuous, depending upon the situation. A person gains personal knowledge concerning his ability to be a causal agent through experience. According to De Charms, if a person has previously experienced much success through his own efforts, he is likely to perceive himself as an Origin. According to Social Learning Theory, reinforcement acts to strengthen expectancies that a particular behavior or event will be followed by a particular reinforcement in the future; a casual relationship develops in the mind. The expectation can be further strengthened through future reinforcements or weakened by lack of reinforcement. The issue whether internals and externals respond differently to reinforcements with regard to expectation has not therefore, been decided.

The article focuses on a study which discusses the internal versus external attribution of task performance as a function of locus of control, initial confidence, and success-failure outcome. The internal-external control construct (I-E) is conceptualized as a generalized expectancy related to a person's belief concerning the locus of causality for events. The utility of the I-E construct in predicting the direction of blame assignment has been tested directly several times. The notion that internals would attribute blame for either success or failure to internal sources and that externals would tend to blame success or failure to external sources was not empirically validated. Internals tended to attribute responsibility for success to their ability, a stable internal source, while externals tended to attribute responsibility for success to good luck, a variable external source. Under failure, the opposite but non-significant trend was found. Internals tended to be more external in their attribution for failure than were externals.

The article discusses effects of inconsistent reinforcement on the negative self-reinforcing behavior of high and low self-esteem individuals. Self-reinforcement (SR) is likely to play an important part in the development, maintenance, and potential for change of specific behaviors. In addition, SR may represent an important factor in psychopathology. The research study discussed in this article examines the effect of variables, self-esteem and inconsistent reinforcement on self-critical responses concerning performance on an ambiguous task. Self-esteem is the term frequently used to denote a generalized evaluation of oneself involving standards and self appraisal. Of particular relevance to the present study is the question of whether self -appraisals are invariant across different types of behavior and tasks which would justify reference to habitual and generalized self-imposed standards. To investigate possible effects of self-esteem and inconsistent reinforcement on self-critical evaluations of performance on an ambiguous task involving creative ability, college females scoring high and low in self-esteem, were randomly assigned to an inconsistent reinforcement condition. The findings support the prediction of a direct relation between self-esteem and SR, and also suggest that inconsistent reinforcement may be an antecedent of negative self-evaluation.

This article presents information on the behavior modifier techniques used by teachers in the class. Some teachers try to bribe the students with candies and gifts. Some force students by punishment. Many teachers think that the inducement of rules and instructions is enough for the good behavior. The simple thinking behind this is that good behavior means following the rules. Studies indicate that positive and unwitting encouragement is the best technique for behavior modification. An act can become an unwitting behavior modifier when its reinforcement is not controlled.

The article presents the seven-month study of token economy procedures with chronic schizophrenic patients in an English psychiatric hospital. The study aimed to train the staff involved in token economy methods and to develop an appropriate set of assessment and therapeutic procedures. Some attempt was made to isolate factors other than token reinforcement in line with the criticism of their studies, although, according to the authors, the present study should be construed primarily as a demonstration and not as a controlled experiment. Despite, there are a few disturbing problems which certainly demand a more through investigation, the study showed encouraging results in running a token economy .

Discusses the outlook of physicians for treating patients with self-destructive habits. Types of injurious habits which are subject to correction by a willed and conscious act of the patient; Factors that generate bad habits and influence compliance; Methods aimed at improving health habits.

The article discusses the study conducted regarding the absentee rate of certain target children in two schools at Appalachian county in Kentucky. This study deals with chronic absentees of students who are prime candidates of becoming dropouts. It is administered to elementary and highs students who are identified by their principals as chronic absentees. An equal number of students are also selected as reinforcing agents to each absentee. The result shows that the attendance rate of both the elementary and high school children increased significantly due to treatment and follow-up phases.

The article explores the personal problems by juvenile delinquents under conditions of minimal reinforcement. A method of extremely minimal reinforcement for discussion of personal introspective and emotional material has been tried on a population--adolescent juvenile delinquents--that by nature appeared extremely unsuited and resistant to this sort of task (albeit a captive population was a favorable factor). Six boys and six girls were asked to spend up to 17 half hour sessions alone in a room recording their comments on their backgrounds, problem, and feelings. No evidence of destructive behavior was found.

The Temple Resource Room Project represents an attempt to develop, refine, and evaluate an alternative to special class placement for behavior problem children in the public school. Children in the experimental group were scheduled for a resource room program during those periods of the day in which they were functioning least effectively in the regular class. Since the majority were also performing below expected grade level academically, the program emphasized academic remediation with the use of response-reinforcement contingencies in a structured classroom situation. The experimental group made significantly greater gains in reading vocabulary and arithmetic fundamentals than did a comparison group. Behavioral changes also occurred, with the greatest improvement being noted with the experimental group when in the resource room. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No study has investigated delays of reinforcement of more than 30 seconds in the classroom. Yet many classroom delays exceed 30 seconds. A study designed for a four-way analysis of variance investigated (a) delays of reinforcement of 0, 5, and 15 minutes: (b) returning test stimuli before reinforcement versus not returning test stimuli: (c) primary versus intermediate grade range: and (d) trials. Subjects were educable retarded students in public schools. All main effects were found to be significant as well as the interaction between range (c) and procedure (b), and delay (a) and procedure (b). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of grouping children in the classroom for the purpose of improving teaching has been traditionally approached by making groups homogeneous on the basis of age, intelligence test scores, achievement tests, or personality measures. Using an alternative approach, involving direct assessment of academic productivity and pretraining to work in groups, two studies are presented in this article. Experiment I showed that through the management of reinforcement contingencies a teacher could develop and maintain a high rate of academic productivity in a group of two boys with school adjustment problems. Experiment II, which applied similar techniques to a larger group, showed that high rates of work behavior could be maintained as the size of the group increased, and suggested that the proximity of the teacher may be related to the amount of study behavior generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of token reinforcement programs in the special education classroom indicates that positive results were almost invariably obtained, even with different types of target behaviors and various kinds of populations. It is suggested that future studies concentrate on devising means of withdrawing tokens without interruption of progress and that greater use be made of reinforcers already existing in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher attention and a token reinforcement system were used to bring about control in a disruptive junior high school special education classroom. Individual and group study levels were recorded during a baseline period. Subsequent experimental periods employing teacher attention and/or a token point system increased study levels and decreased disruptive behaviors of class members. Reinforcement of appropriate behaviors was withdrawn during short reversals producing lowered study rates. Reinstatement of contingencies again resulted in increased study levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A token system was instituted in an adjustment class of six third and fourth graders. The aim of the study was to examine aspects of token systems critical in making them effective. The results indicated a significant degree of improvement in behavior attributable to the token program, but when compared to the highly effective program reported by O'Leary and Becker (1967.), it is apparent that an effective program requires more than tokens and back up rein forcers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A base rate of deviant behavior was obtained for the eight most disruptive children in a third grade adjustment class. In a token reinforcement program, the children received teacher's ratings which were exchangeable for reinforcers such as candy and trinkets. With the introduction of the token reinforcement program, an abrupt reduction in deviant behavior occurred. Delay of reinforcement was gradually increased to four days without increase in deviant behavior. The program was equally successful for all children observed, and anecdotal evidence suggests that the children's appropriate behavior generalized to other school situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study, which compares the verbal responses to the therapist and verbal responses made between patients in a group situation. The shaping of social verbal responses has been accomplished by various methods with other groups. These results suggest that group interaction can be systematically managed with immediate feedback in the form of reinforcement. Verbal responses of schizophrenics can be manipulated by appropriate therapist reinforcement. The therapist, though, many times represents the only reinforcement stimulus in group situations. The degree that patient interaction can be modified needs to be systematically explored.

The article examines the feedback and experience effects on psychological reports and predictions of behavior. The article further presents a study which is concerned with the performances of groups that differ in training and conditions of feedback. Comparisons are made for accuracy and idiosyncracy of data usage and for accuracy of predicting subsequent life events. The experienced subjects displayed less consensus on data usage and employed more idiosynciatic adjectives in their inferences and more idiosyncratic concepts in their reports. Some improvement in predictions of behavior by females occurred as a result of feedback.

Following Nord (1969), the present article contains a predictive model of individual behavior based on both operant conditioning and management literatures. The behavior of an organizational member is seen as a function of the reinforcement contingencies applied by various groups in his environment and of his cognitive assessment of such contingencies. Several characteristics of reinforcement contingencies are examined, e.g., positive vs negative reinforcement, schedules of reinforcement, and immediacy of reinforcement. The model provides a potentially useful schema for classifying environmental contingencies operating on a member of an organization and for predicting their varied effects on behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiment examined the relationship between belief in internal versus external control of reinforcement, as assessed by Rotter's Internal-External (I-E) Scale, and performance in a two-choice probability learning task. On the basis of their I-E scores, 138 female undergraduates were equally divided into High (external), Middle. and Low (internal) Groups. These three groups were found not to differ with respect to gross learning or recency effects. However, a more detailed analysis of the Markov characteristics of asymptotic responding indicated that significantly more Externals than Internals bad made their choices in a "random" manner as defined by either (a) independence of successive responses or (b) goodness-of-fit of response sequences to the sequence of events. This latter result was compatible with the idea that Externals are "chance-oriented" and Internals are "skill-oriented". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contingent negative variation (CNV) and simple reaction time (RT) of human Ss were recorded when the imperative stimulus (IS) was either single flash, repetitive flash, numeric feedback of RT, or numeric no-feedback of RT. Reaction times were not significantly shorter, but CNVs were larger when IS was flicker rather then single flash. RT was slightly faster, but CNV was no larger in one study when explicit numeric feedback was provided than when it was not. Slightly larger CNVs were obtained in the no-feedback condition in a third experiment. Conclusions were: (1) that the effectiveness of flicker vs flash in producing a CNV difference was due to S's attempts to obtain feedback in the flicker condition and not to feed-back per se, and (2) that the general hedonic quality of the experiment produced by the degree of positive or negative reinforcement is a potent feedback variable, whereas RT feedback per se is not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repetitive auditory stimuli were used to examine the ability of human Ss to sustain instrumental motor responses during sleep. A majority of simple (one tone) and discriminative (two tones) responses occurred without distinct electrographic signs of awakening. Punishment for response failure, which changed neutral stimuli to warning signals, increased the probability of correct responding, particularly to stimuli which did not evoke the alpha rhythm. Correct responding was a decreasing function of Stages l, 2, and 3 plus 4, in that order. In Stage REM, however, response probability was markedly affected by the nature of the stimulus. When the stimulus was converted from a neutral to a warning signal, the probability of responding was raised from nearly zero to levels approximating those of other low-voltage EEG stages. These results suggest that while low responsiveness in Stage 4 may be due to physiological depression, Stage REM is a state of activation in which external stimuli are normally blocked. Contingent reinforcement, by changing the significance of the stimulus, modifies this occlusion-like phenomenon, permitting appropriate responding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that while punishment may suppress behavior, it can have no such therapeutic or beneficial consequences because its effects are usually transient and depend on continuous and repeated applications. Punishment at the intensities indicated was administered to either rats of birds for several daily experimental sessions. As soon as shock is withdrawn, the response rate increases at least to its initial value. It can be concluded that punishment suppresses concurrently rewarded behavior only as long as it continues to follow each response. When sudden or very severe shock is used, punishment is an unfortunate choice as a therapeutic agent for another reason. In such a case, behavior can be inhibited to such an extent that the organism might well perish or be damaged as a result of its therapeutic experience. It seems that it is necessary to continue to punish a response to maintain a given amount of suppression unless such severe shock is used that there is a danger of seriously injuring the organism whose behavior is wished to be modified. Evidence has been presented from animal experiments which seems to indicate that, although punishment can and does suppress a response, it is by itself, essentially an ineffective way to control or to eliminate the behavior of the punished organism.