Roscoe Eileen M, Iwata Brian A, Rand Melissa S
New England Center for Children, USA.
J Appl Behav Anal. 2003 Winter;36(4):525-39. doi: 10.1901/jaba.2003.36-525.
Results of previous research on the effects of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) have been inconsistent when magnitude of reinforcement was manipulated. We attempted to clarify the influence of NCR magnitude by including additional controls. In Study 1, we examined the effects of reinforcer consumption time by comparing the same magnitude of NCR when session time was and was not corrected to account for reinforcer consumption. Lower response rates were observed when session time was not corrected, indicating that reinforcer consumption can suppress response rates. In Study 2, we first selected varying reinforcer magnitudes (small, medium, and large) on the basis of corrected response rates observed during a contingent reinforcement condition and then compared the effects of these magnitudes during NCR. One participant exhibited lower response rates when large-magnitude reinforcers were delivered; the other ceased responding altogether even when small-magnitude reinforcers were delivered. We also compared the effects of the same NCR magnitude (medium) during 10-min and 30-min sessions. Lower response rates were observed during 30-min sessions, indicating that the number of reinforcers consumed across a session can have the same effect as the number consumed per reinforcer delivery. These findings indicate that, even when response rate is corrected to account for reinforcer consumption, larger magnitudes of NCR (defined on either a per-delivery or per-session basis) result in lower response rates than do smaller magnitudes.
以往关于非连续性强化（NCR）效果的研究结果在强化量被操纵时并不一致。我们试图通过纳入额外的控制措施来阐明NCR量的影响。在研究1中，我们通过比较在会话时间校正和未校正以考虑强化物消耗情况下相同量的NCR，来研究强化物消耗时间的影响。当会话时间未校正时观察到较低的反应率，这表明强化物消耗会抑制反应率。在研究2中，我们首先根据在连续性强化条件下观察到的校正反应率选择不同的强化物量（小、中、大），然后比较这些量在NCR期间的效果。一名参与者在给予大量强化物时表现出较低的反应率；另一名参与者即使在给予小量强化物时也完全停止了反应。我们还比较了在10分钟和30分钟会话期间相同量的NCR（中）的效果。在30分钟会话期间观察到较低的反应率，这表明在一个会话中消耗的强化物数量与每次强化物递送消耗的数量具有相同的效果。这些发现表明，即使反应率校正以考虑强化物消耗，较大量的NCR（按每次递送或每次会话定义）比较小量的NCR导致更低的反应率。
