FUNCTION OF FEEDBACK AND INSTRUCTIONS PRESENCE OR ABSENCE IN DESCRIPTION ELABORATION ON CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION TASKS

Abstract

The function of rules and instructions to facilitate, maintain or modify the behaviour of individuals has been widely explored in a great variety of tasks. Both rules and instructions, independently of the properties and characteristics that are attributed to them, can be seen as descriptions of the contingencies or the relations between several elements of a situation that the subject has faced or will face. The present study explored the effects of feedback density and presence or absence of generic instructions with respect to the response component on post-contact descriptions (i.e. rules) of sixteen university students, using a first order matching-to-sample task. Results were consistent with other studies in relation to the effects of instructional precision (i.e. high executions under precise instructions) and density of feedback. At the same time, the presence of a greater number of pertinent type post-contact descriptions was observed, contrary to previous research findings. Results suggest an effect of instructional precision and change in feedback density on post-contingency contact descriptions

Keywords

• Descriptions
• feedback density
• rules
• instructions
• matching-to-sample
• undergraduate students