Preferences for mothers and security blankets and their effectiveness as reinforcers for young children's behaviors.

Preferences for attachment agents and the reinforcing efficacy of their individual components were assessed in 100 pre-school-aged children. In the first study, mothers were selected more often than the blanket or control; however, those children rated by their mothers as being blanket-attached approached their blanket more than no object. In the second study, children responded more frequently for their mother than for the blanket or no object. However, visual presentations of the blanket were more effective reinforcers for blanket-attached than for non-attached children. In the third study, auditory and visual features of the mother were tested as reinforcers. Control over responding was consistently achieved with contingent presentations of the mother's voice or her televised image, but not with corresponding presentations of an unfamiliar woman.