PURSUIT ROTOR PERFORMANCE: I. EFFECTS OF REINFORCING THE LONGER INTERVALS OF CONTINUOUS TRACKING WITHIN EACH TRIAL.

Abstract

To determine whether selective reinforcement of pursuit rotor performance facilitates acquisition of skill and promotes its retention, five groups of subjects were individually trained for ten sessions of 15 trials each. Selective reinforcement of longer than average target contacts was introduced for one group of subjects during Sessions 6 and 7 and for another during Sessions 4 to 7. Continuous reinforcement of target contacts was introduced for two other groups. A control group received no reinforcement. Dependable improvements in time-on-target scores were obtained for all four sessions, but the superior performances were not maintained when reinforcement was withdrawn. The results suggest that this improvement as a function of feedback was attributable to motivational rather than learning or informational effects. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0638015

Entities

People

  • John F. Bjorklund
  • Richard W. Sheldon

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Feedback
  • Intervals
  • Learning

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience