Conditioned Reinforcement: Experimental and Theoretical Issues

Abstract

The concept of conditioned reinforcement has received decreased attention in learning textbooks over the past decade, in part because of criticisms of its validity by major behavior theorists and in part because its explanatory function in a variety of different conditioning procedures has become uncertain. Critical data from the major procedures that have been used to investigate the concept (second-order schedules, chain schedules, concurrent chains, observing responses, delay-of-reinforcement procedures) are reviewed, along with the major issues of interpretation. Although the role played by conditioned reinforcement in some procedures remains unresolved, the results taken together leave little doubt that the underlying idea of conditioned value is a critical component of behavior theory that is necessary to explain many different types of data. Other processes (marking, bridging) may also operate to produce effects similar to those of conditioned reinforcement, but these clearly cannot explain the full domain of experimental effects ascribed to conditioned reinforcement and should be regarded as complements to the concept rather than theoretical competitors. Examples of practical and theoretical applications of the concept of conditioned reinforcement are also considered.Key words: conditioned reinforcement, behavior theory, observing behavior, chain schedules, delay of reinforcement, concurrent chains A general assumption in contemporary behavior analysis is that human behavior is best understood in terms of the contingencies of reinforcement operating on that behavior. Yet much, if not most, human behavior has little immediate impact on satisfying the biological motives that underlie the reinforcement contingencies commonly studied in the laboratory. People are not born with a tendency to work for money, to like the taste of alcohol or coffee, or to discover laws of behavior. We are also not born with the motivation to engage in compulsive hand washing or to be fearful ofspeaking in public. Such motives, both positive and negative, are learned,'and a major task of any behavior theory is to specify how such learning occurs, both in order to have a complete theory of behavior

The Origins and Organization of Vertebrate Pavlovian Conditioning

“…A similar conclusion is reached by exploring conditioned reinforcement effects in which an appetitive CS can serve to reinforce a new instrumental association in the absence of any US (Rescorla and Solomon 1967;Williams 1994). Both the general PITand conditioned reinforcement phenomena suggest that the CS has taken on (or has access to) the general motivational value of the US.…”

The Transformation of Consequential Functions in Accordance With the Relational Frames of Same and Opposite

“…The effectiveness of stimuli that result from contingent relations with other reinforcers or punishers (i.e., conditioned reinforcers and conditioned punishers) is particularly pertinent to the establishment and maintenance of human behavior. According to Williams (1994), ''the current consensus is that conditioned reinforcers acquire value in their own right because of Pavlovian conditioning'' (p. 261). Acknowledging that simple Pavlovian conditioning Part of this material was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Toronto, Canada, May 2002.…”

INTERPRETING COGNITIVE PHENOMENA: REVIEW OF DONAHOE AND PALMER'S LEARNING AND COMPLEX BEHAVIOR1

“…And if so, how? If there are not many practical differences, then the sense of commonality between behavior analysts and the S-R behaviorists would be strengthened (see also Williams, 1994aWilliams, , 1994b.…”