The effects of novel and familiar stimuli on post-training self-reinforcement behavior

Gray, Julian Duncan (1976) The effects of novel and familiar stimuli on post-training self-reinforcement behavior. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The present investigation explored the relationship between baseline self-reinforcement behaviour and subsequent post-training self-reinforcement rate. The relationship between baseline grouping and locus of control was also assessed. -- Eighty-four subjects (forty-two males and forty-two females) were placed into "high" or "low" groups contingent upon their baseline scores, and were also identified as having either an internal or an external locus of control, as measured by Rotter's scale of Internal versus External Control (1966). Members of each baseline group then received training to one of three criteria (fifty per cent, one hundred per cent, or overtraining) on a four-choice verbal discrimination task using consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams. -- In the post-training phase, self-reinforcement rate was assessed by presenting a random mixture of the familiar stimuli used in training and an equal number of novel stimuli. -- Results indicated that the baseline groups tended to be affected differentially as as a function of training criteria, with low baseline subjects making the greatest increases in self-reinforcement under high training levels. Support was gained for the prediction that high levels of training would tend to reduce the difference in self-reinforcement styles of different baseline groups to familiar stimuli. -- In the case of novel stimuli, no exposure was given prior to the post-training phase, and subjects responded to these stimuli, thus leading to a correlation between baseline scores and post-training self-reinforcement scores for these items. -- No relationship was found between locus of control and baseline self-reinforcement performance.

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