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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1993 Nov;60(3):515–527. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1993.60-515

A parametric variation of delayed reinforcement in infants.

L Reeve 1, K F Reeve 1, C L Poulson 1
PMCID: PMC1322162  PMID: 8283147

Abstract

This study is an exploration of the parameters of delayed reinforcement with 6 infants (2 to 6 months old) in two experiments using single-subject repeated-reversal designs. In Experiment 1, unsignaled 3-s delayed reinforcement was used to increase infant vocalization rate when compared to a differential-reinforcement-of-other-than-vocalization condition and a yoked, no-contingency comparison condition. In Experiment 2, unsignaled 5-s delayed reinforcement was used to increase infant vocalization rate when compared to an alternating-treatments comparison condition. The alternating-treatments comparison consisted of 3-min components of differential reinforcement of other behavior and 3-min components of a nontreatment baseline. Successful conditioning was obtained in both experiments. These results contrast with those of previous infancy researchers who did not obtained conditioning with delays of 3 s and who attributed their findings to the limitations of the infant's memory capacity. We present an alternative conceptual framework and methodology for the analysis of delayed reinforcement in infants.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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