Superstitious Rule Generation is Affected by Probability and Type of Outcome

Abstract

One hundred and fifty participants played a computer task in which pOints were either gained (reinforcement) or lost (punishment) randomly on 75%, 50%, or 25% of trials. Despite the noncontingent nature of the task, participants frequently suggested superstitious rules by which points were either gained or lost. Rules were more likely to be suggested and supported higher confidence ratings under conditions of maximal reinforcement or minimal punishment, and participants gaining points tended to express more rules than did those losing points. Superstitious rule generation was in no way related to a person's locus of control, as measured by Rotter's Internal-External Scale. Participants losing points were more accurate in keeping track of their total number of points than were participants gaining points. Results are discussed in terms of reinforcement and punishment's effects on the stimulus control of rule-governed behavior, and comparisons are drawn with the illusion of control and learned helplessness literature.

Depressive Realism: Wiser or Quieter?

“…Some interesting examples are the percentage of reinforcement, also called outcome density (Alloy & Abramson, 1979;Matute, 1995;Rudski et al, 1999), skill-related factors (Thompson, Armstrong, & Thomas, 1998), valence of outcomes (Aeschleman, Rosen, & Williams, 2002;Alloy & Abramson, 1979), length of the intertrial intervals (Msetfi, Murphy, & Simpson, 2007;Msetfi, Murphy, Simpson, & Kornbrot, 2005), number of trials (Shanks & Dickinson, 1987), delay of reinforcement (Rudski, 2000), and probability of responding (Matute, 1996). The present research is concerned with this latter factor.…”

“…Langer (1975) called this phenomenon the illusion of control, because it consists of people believing that they have personal control over uncontrollable events. The idea that sometimes people perceive contingencies in a nonrealistic way had been proposed long ago (e.g., Ward & Jenkins, 1965), and since Langer's seminal article on the illusion of control, many researchers have replicated this effect under very different conditions (e.g., Alloy & Abramson, 1979;Matute, Vadillo, Vegas, & Blanco, 2007;Rudski, Lischner, & Albert, 1999). A very influential article was Alloy and Abramson's; they found that college students who were mildly depressed tended to show less illusion of control than nondysphoric students.…”

Response-independent outcomes impact response rates and judgments of control differentially depending on rate of response-dependent outcomes

“…Experimentally, the illusion of control effect appears to be found when the rate at which outcomes are delivered, and the rate at which responses are emitted, are high (Blanco, Matute, & Vadillo, 2012;Rudski, 2004). A similar finding has also been observed in the nonhuman instrumental conditioning literature, and is often termed Bsuperstitious conditioning. lthough the presentation of response-independent reinforcers typically depresses responding (Burgess & Wearden, 1986), presenting response-independent reinforcement can sometimes result in higher rates of instrumental responding (Lattal & Bryan, 1976;Rudski, Lischner, & Albert, 1999;Skinner, 1948). This is particularly noted when rates of response-dependent reinforcement are low (Lattal & Bryan, 1976).…”

Reward and Feedback in the Control over Dynamic Events

“…Consistent with this speculation, work looking at the association between rewards and behavior has often reported that people see rewards as potential reinforces of self-esteem, which can in turn boost performance (Bushman, Moeller, & Crocker, 2011). Also, there is work suggesting that rewards may induce confidence or even over confidence which can negatively impact performance (González-Vallejo, & Bonham, 2007;Rudski, Lischner, & Albert, 2012). In addition, there is work showing that rather than positive reinforcement motivating behavior and improving performance, negative reinforcers are a more effective way of improving performance.…”