Secondary Reinforcement in a Discrimination Problem with Children

Frustration and secondary reinforcement concepts as applied to human instrumental conditioning and extinction.

“…299]." Since then, Myers and his associates have reported a series of studies which seem to tip the scales in the positive direction: the author is aware of nine published studies by this group, seven of which report Sr effects (Fort, 1961(Fort, , 1965Leiman, Myers, & Myers, 1961;Myers, 1960;Myers, Craig, & Myers, 1961;Myers & Myers, 1962, 1963. It ma}r be noted in passing, however, that other recent studies are not so confirmatory.…”

Secondary Reinforcement as a Function of Training and Testing Schedules

“…Several recent investigations of learning in children have been concerned with the problem of increasing the capacity of various stimuli to reinforce selected responses (e.g., Fort, 1965;Leiman, Myers, & Myers, 1961;Myers & Myers, 1963). The results of these studies have shown that such stimuli as buzzers and lights can, after pairing with rewards such as candy, serve to maintain operant responses and to mediate discrimination learning.…”

Learning.

“…Some stimuli have a value that is not intrinsic, but that derives from their close association with previous rewards. For example,' children will perform for light flashes or for tokens which previously have been accompanied by candy ( 98,100,120,121). Such stimuli are usually spoken of as secondary rewards.…”