Ragotzy S P, Blakely E, Poling A
Kalamazoo Valley Intermediate School District, Michigan.
J Exp Anal Behav. 1988 Mar;49(2):191-9. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1988.49-191.
Three severely mentally retarded adolescents were studied under discrete-trial procedures in which a choice was arranged between edible reinforcers that differed in magnitude and, in some conditions, delay. In the absence of delays the larger reinforcer was consistently chosen. Under conditions in which the smaller reinforcer was not delayed, increasing the delay to delivery of the larger reinforcer decreased the percentage of trials in which that reinforcer was chosen. All subjects directed the majority of choice responses to the smaller reinforcer when the larger reinforcer was sufficiently delayed, although the value at which this occurred differed across subjects. Under conditions in which the larger reinforcer initially was sufficiently delayed to result in preference for the smaller one, progressively increasing in 5-s increments the delay to both reinforcers increased percentage of trials with the larger reinforcer chosen. At sufficiently long delays, 2 of the subjects consistently chose the larger, but more delayed, reinforcer, and the 3rd subject chose that reinforcer on half of the trials. These results are consistent with the findings of prior studies in which adult humans responded to terminate noise and pigeons responded to produce food.
对三名重度智力发育迟缓的青少年进行了离散试验程序研究，在该程序中，在不同量值且在某些情况下不同延迟的可食用强化物之间安排了选择。在没有延迟的情况下，始终会选择更大的强化物。在较小强化物没有延迟的条件下，增加较大强化物的交付延迟会降低选择该强化物的试验百分比。当较大强化物被充分延迟时，所有受试者的大多数选择反应都指向较小的强化物，尽管出现这种情况的数值因受试者而异。在较大强化物最初被充分延迟以至于导致偏好较小强化物的条件下，以5秒的增量逐步增加对两种强化物的延迟，会增加选择较大强化物的试验百分比。在足够长的延迟下，两名受试者始终选择更大但延迟更多的强化物，第三名受试者在一半的试验中选择了该强化物。这些结果与先前的研究结果一致，在先前的研究中，成年人类做出反应以终止噪音，鸽子做出反应以获取食物。
