ON THE EFFECTS OF NONCONTINGENT DELIVERY OF DIFFERING MAGNITUDES OF REINFORCEMENT

We conducted a parametric analysis of response suppression associated with different magnitudes of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR). Partic ipants were 5 adults with severe or profound mental retardation who en gaged in a manual response that was reinforced on variable-ratio sched ules during baseline. Participants were then exposed to NCR via multie lement and reversal designs. The fixed-time schedules were kept consta nt while the magnitude of the reinforcing stimulus was varied across t hree levels (low, medium, and high). Results showed that high-magnitud e NCR schedules produced large and consistent reductions in response r ates, medium-magnitude schedules produced less consistent and smaller reductions, and low-magnitude schedules produced little or no effect o n responding. These results suggest that (a) NCR affects responding by altering an establishing operation (i.e., attenuating a deprivation s tate) rather than through extinction, and (b) magnitude of reinforceme nt is an important variable in determining the effectiveness of NCR.