EFFECTS OF A DEMAND FOR INTERLOCKING PERFORMANCES OVER BASELINE IN SIMPLE SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of an interlocking performance requirement, spacing of responses of three participants, on the triads’ operant pattern in variable interval schedule of reinforcement. The task consisted of a kind of game in which the only possible response, click the mouse button, was free to occur and could produce individual consequences (in VI 3 s or VI 12 s) and consequences contingent on the requirement that participants to click spaced with respect to each other. Twelve college students constituted four triads. Two conditions were programmed in a reversal design ABAB: Condition A, only operant contingency was in effect; Condition B, operant and cultural contingencies in effect. The results showed that, regardless of the individual schedule of reinforcement parameters, the overlap of an interlocking performance requirement selected a pattern of coordination among participants' responses. The suspension and reintroduction of interlocking requirement showed that systematic changes in the pattern of occurrence of interlocking behavior were function of the manipulated variable. The requirement of spacing between participants' responses to produce an experimentally arranged consequence can be characterized as a metacontingency. The procedure, in this sense, demonstrates the effects of different levels of variation and selection in action simultaneously for individual behavior and for interlocking performances. Key words: Cultural Selection, interlocking behavioral contingencies, schedules of reinforcement, free operant.