The question
Name: ______________________ Date: ____________ Reinforcement schedules and persistence (7 points)
Study
Invented study: Practice rewards and persistence on a puzzle game
Introduction
Partial reinforcement is thought to make behavior last longer once rewards stop than continuous reinforcement does. Researchers tested this with a puzzle app. Hypothesis: students rewarded on only some puzzles during practice would keep trying unsolvable puzzles longer than students rewarded on every puzzle.
Participants
90 students in grades 10 to 12 from two public high schools in Georgia took part during a free period. 48 were girls and 42 were boys; 41% were Black, 33% White, 17% Hispanic and 9% Asian American. The study was approved by an institutional review board. Parents gave written informed consent, and each student gave assent and was told they could stop at any time without penalty.
Method
Students were randomly assigned to one of three groups of 30. Each solved 30 short practice puzzles on a tablet. In the continuous group, every solved puzzle earned 10 points and a sound. In the fixed-ratio group, every third solved puzzle earned 30 points. In the variable-ratio group, solved puzzles earned 30 points on average every third puzzle, at unpredictable times. Then every student received the same set of puzzles that could not be solved and earned no points. Persistence was the number of minutes a student kept working on these puzzles before pressing "Quit," up to 20 minutes. Afterward, students were debriefed: told that the last puzzles had no solution and why, and that quitting said nothing about their ability.
Results
Mean persistence was 6.2 minutes in the continuous group, 9.8 minutes in the fixed-ratio group and 13.5 minutes in the variable-ratio group. The difference between the continuous and variable-ratio groups was statistically significant, and so was the difference between the fixed-ratio and variable-ratio groups.
Discussion
The researchers concluded that partial reinforcement, especially on a variable-ratio schedule, made students persist longer once rewards stopped. They noted that the study lasted one session and used points in a game, not real rewards such as grades.
Invented study for practice.
(A) Identify the research method used in the study. [1 point]
(B) State the operational definition of persistence. [1 point]
(C) Describe what the difference between the mean persistence of the continuous group and the variable-ratio group shows. [1 point]
(D) Identify one ethical guideline the researchers followed, and explain how they applied it in this study. [1 point]
(E) Explain the extent to which the research findings may or may not be generalizable using specific and relevant evidence from the study. [1 point]
(F) Explain how at least one of the research findings supports or refutes the researchers' hypothesis that students rewarded on only some puzzles would persist longer than students rewarded on every puzzle. [2 points]