EXPECTANCIES AS FACTORS INFLUENCING CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN

Recent results from the animal literature have shown that discriminati on of symbols is facilitated when a different reward is associated wit h each problem or relation to be learned. This differential outcomes p rocedure apparently allows for the formation of reward expectancies th at can serve as an additional source of information on which to base t he discrimination. Three experiments demonstrate that children taught using the differential outcomes procedure in a conditional discriminat ion task learn faster, have expectancies for outcomes, and can rely on these expectancies to solve new discriminative choice problems involv ing the same outcomes. This facilitative effect of differential outcom es also appears when different tokens are the immediate reinforcer. Th ese studies support an expectancy theory of reinforcement with potenti al applied significance as an adjunct to teaching and training of diff icult discriminations.