Abstract
Four hundred college students received one of five sequences in which one of two events occurred on either 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, or 95% of 100 trials followed by 30 trials during which one event was always correct. A partial reinforcement hump—a rise and decline in the dependent variable curve following partial reinforcement—appeared in the postacquisition curves of two of the five groups. In the other three groups, a large fall-off in the curve occurred where a large drop in the curve should occur if postacquisition choices are controlled by the cognitive processes posited to produce the partial reinforcement hump. These results are consistent with the general expectancy position.
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Hartley, R.E., Williams, C.D. The Partial Reinforcement Hump in A Two-Choice Sequential Prediction Task With Alternatives of Unequal Frequency. Psychol Rec 35, 391–399 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395860
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395860