Decision Making by Children as a Function of Amount of Reinforcement

This study deals with the effect of varying amounts of reinforcement in a two-choice decision making experiment of the Humphreys type. The situation involves prediction by children of a binary sequence of events. The data are analyzed in terms of a linear learning model of the type developed by Estes and Burke ( 1953) and Bush and Mosteller ( 1955). The experimental situation involves a series of discrete trials. Each trial begins with the onset of a ready signal. S then makes one of two responses (Al or A2) ; these responses are mutually exclusive and exhaustive. A trial is terminated by a reinforcing event from one of two classes of events (El and E-). The occurrence of the class Ei means that A{ was the correcr response. Amount of reinforcement is varied by specifying two events in each class Ei; these events are designated EiX and Ei*". In the present experimental setup it is conjectured that Ei"' will have a greater reinforcing effect than will Ei". The reinforcement schedule is probabilistic. On each trial, one of four events, El**, El*, EZX*, or E2+ can occur. The respective probabilities are