Operant responses of 16 children (mean age 6 years and 1 month) were reinforced according to different fixed-interval schedules (with interreinforcer intervals of 20, 30, or 40 s) in which the reinforcers were either 20-s or 40-s presentations of a cartoon. In another procedure, they received training on a self-control paradigm in which both reinforcer delay (0.5 s or 40 s) and reinforcer duration (20 s or 40 s of cartoons) varied, and subjects were offered a choice between various combinations of delay and duration. Individual differences in behavior under the self-control procedure were precisely mirrored by individual differences under the fixed-interval schedule. Children who chose the smaller immediate reinforcer on the self-control procedure (impulsive) produced short postreinforcement pauses and high response rates in the fixed-interval conditions, and both measures changed little with changes in fixed-interval value. Conversely, children who chose the larger delayed reinforcer in the self-control condition (the self-controlled subjects) exhibited lower response rates and long postreinforcement pauses, which changed systematically with changes in the interval, in their fixed-interval performances.

Twenty‐six infants, 3 to 23 months old, were trained on fixed‐interval schedules ranging from 10 s to 80 s. The operant response was touching an illuminated location on a touch‐sensitive screen, and 20 s of cartoon presentation was the reinforcer. The subjects were also trained in a six‐phase self‐control procedure in which the critical phases involved choice between 20 s of cartoon available after a 0.5‐s delay (impulsive choice) and 40 s of cartoon delayed for 40 s (self‐controlled choice). All the youngest children (3 to 5 months) showed long postreinforcement pauses on the fixed‐interval schedule, with most intervals involving the emission of a single, reinforced, response, and all made self‐controlled choices. Older subjects (9 to 23 months) either produced the same pattern as the younger ones on the fixed‐interval schedule (classified as pause‐sensitive subjects) or produced short pauses and higher steady response rates (classified as pause‐insensitive subjects). All pause‐sensitive subjects made self‐controlled choices in the self‐control condition, and all pause‐insensitive subjects made impulsive ones.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a high-probability (high-p) request sequence as a means of increasing compliance with medical examination tasks. Participants were children who had been diagnosed with autism and who exhibited noncompliance during general medical examinations. The inclusion of the high-p request sequence effectively increased compliance with medical examination tasks. In addition, the procedure was efficient, could be implemented by parents and medical professionals, and did not involve aversive procedures.

In the present study, excitatory backward conditioning was assessed in a conditioned reinforcement paradigm. The experiment was conducted with human subjects and consisted of five conditions. In all conditions, US reinforcing value (i.e. time reduction of a timer) was assessed in phase 1 using a concurrent FR schedule, with one response key leading to US presentation and the other key leading to no-US. In phase 2, two discrete stimuli, S+ and S-, were paired with US and no-US respectively using an operant contingency. For three groups, backward contingencies were arranged, and two of these were designed to rule out a trace (forward) conditioning interpretation of the results. The two other groups served as control conditions (forward and neutral conditions).Finally, in phase 3 for all groups the CSs were delivered in a concurrent FR schedule similar to phase 1, but with no US. Responding during phase 3 showed conditioned reinforcement effects and hence excitatory backward conditioning. Implications of the results for conditioned reinforcement models are discussed.