Reversal of Partial Reinforcement Effects in Acquisition Goal Speed: An Artifact That Continues to Stimulate Theory
The partial reinforcement acquisition effect (PRAE), faster running by panially reinforced than continuously reinforced animals, is often absent or reversed in goal speed measures ( 5 ) . Robbins and Weinstock ( a ) , however, pointed our that the effect can be found in goal speed when subjects cannot detect presence or absence of reward prior to completion of the goal measure. Discussion of the lack of such an effect in goal measures as an intrinsic aspect of partial reinforcement theory prior to 1967 (1, 9 ) , while compatible with the data that were then available, may have been mistaken. Continued treatment of the reversed effect in goal measures as a basic fact ( 4 , 6 , 10 ) gives misplaced attention to a methodological artifact. A growing number of studies have demonstrated the effect in goal measures ( 2 , 3, 7 , 1 1 ) . Unpublished data from cwo experiments in progress at Tulane also show a goal measure effect. Theories dealing with the partial reinforcement effect in acquisition should, at the least, be prepared to provide a basis for predicting when the effect will be found in a goal measure and when it will not.