Resistance to Extinction following sequences of Partial and Continuous Reinforcement in a Human Choice Task

The present study was designed to determine how partial reinforcement occuring prior to or following periods of continuous reinforcement would affect subsequent extinction behavior of human Ss engaged in a choice task and how these partially reinforced groups (P-C, C-P. & P alone) would compare to a group given only consistent reinforcement (C-C). Further, we attempted to clarify some of the differences found in earlier animal studies. 180 elementary school children from the fifth and sixth grades served as Ss for this experiment. They were assigned randomly to one of four groups (P-C, C-P, C-C, or P alone). It was found that when the differences in response level at the beginning of extinction were controlled, partial reinforcement preceding continuous reinforcement did not lead to greater resistance to extinction than partial reinforcement following continuous reinforcement. These results are inconsistent with the interpretation of the result of a' similar experiment performed by Sutherland et al. (1965) favoring stimulus analyzer theory. Moreover, the problem of the reinforcement definition may also be involved.