Abstract
The performances of 80 third-grade children on either an easy or a difficult discrimination task were compared under two delay of punishment conditions, 0 or 20 sec. Punishment consisted of a 3-sec 98-dB tone. Immediate punishment resulted in better discrimination performance, i.e., fewer trials to criterion and more correct responses, than did delayed punishment. The magnitude of the delayed punishment effect was independent of the difficulty of the discrimination task. On the bases of additional data, it was suggested that the effects of delayed punishment upon children’s discrimination learning involve an attentional rather than a motivational mechanism.
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Joel S. Freund sponsors this paper and takes full editorial responsibility for it. This study was the junior author’s thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts under the direction of the senior author.
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Witte, K.L., Johnson, R.K. Children’s discrimination learning as related to delayed punishment. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 2, 146–148 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329227
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329227