The Nature of the Transfer of the Partial Reinforcement Effect

Theios (1962) and Jenkins (1961) indicated that the PRE, partial reinforcement effect, could be transferred over a block of continuously reinforced trials. Also Ross (1964) provided the following facts that the PRE could be transferred from one situation to a different situation involving a different response under different motivational conditions, and that partial reinforcement in one situation could have either a positive or a negative effect in the new situation. Also he suggested that since the external cues and the motivational conditions werecha nged and a different overt response was involved, the only mediating mechanism for the transfer of the positive and negative PRE was the rf-sf mechanism. The resistance to extinction would be greater (positive transfer) in the case of Ss for whom sf elicited responses compatible with an instrumentol response which were incompatible with running (negative transfer). The present experiment tried to make further investigations about the nature of the PRE.