Investigated the effects of verbal reinforcement paradigms on hospitalized schizophrenics and staff. Positive reinforcement that involved good was found to be relatively ineffective for all groups; furthermore, associating good with the termination of a white noise did not increase its effectiveness for schizophrenics. Verbal punishment was more effective than verbal positive reinforcement for staff, but for schizophrenics only when explicit problem-solving instructions were given. The results suggest that the reduction of deficit is not more likely via verbal punishment; if anything, deficit is increased because of increased staff performance under verbal punishment.

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