Children's Lever-Pulling Behavior as a Function of Shifts in Delay of Reinforcement Interval: A Modified Replication

Abstract

A lever-pulling task was used to assess the effects of shifts in delay of reinforcement on children's behavior. Four groups of first grade children served as Ss. Each group experienced one of the four possible factorial combinations of pre-shift (0 vs 9 sec.) and post-shift (0 vs 9 sec.) delay. Results obtained over the pre-shift and transition trials constitute a nearly perfect replication of findings in an earlier experiment (Rieber, 1961b). However, the results obtained over the post-shift trials were inconsistent with those obtained in the earlier study. Possible reasons for the inconsistent findings were discussed, as was a frustration interpretation for shifts in the delay interval. The present post-shift results seem to indicate that Ss who experience delay of reinforcement respond more persistently than Ss who have experienced only immediate reinforcement.

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