Abstract
This study tested the generality of an earlier finding that evaluative meaning words function as reinforcers for children’s instrumental motor learning. College students served as Ss in a verbal conditioning task. Words rated as having positive, negative, or neutral evaluative meaning (EM) were presented contingent upon the use of self-referent pronouns and were later removed during extinction. Frequency of emission of self-referent pronouns: (1) increased, following presentation of positive EM words and removal of negative EM words; (2) decreased, following removal of positive, and presentation of negative, EM words; (3) was unaffected by presentation or removal of neutral EM words. The results strengthen Staats’s (1968) conclusion that EM words can function as reinforcers and punishers in instrumental tasks.
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Etaugh, C.F., Kelliher, R.J. & Stalling, R.B. Reinforcement of verbal behavior by evaluative meaning words. Psychon Sci 21, 327–328 (1970). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335806
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335806