2016 Volume 42 Issue 2 Pages 215-224
The aim of the present experiment was to examine effects of presenting self-chosen or alternative responses when a decrease in response variability was expected. The participants, 118 undergraduate students, were randomly assigned to one of the following 6 groups: Group S, which was presented with their self-chosen responses; Group E, which was presented only with responses that they had not chosen; Group A, who could choose from all the responses presented; Group O, which was presented with 1 alternative that they had not chosen, in addition to their self-chosen responses; Group N, who were not given an opportunity to choose a response; and a control group. Participants in all groups except the control group played 3 games designed to decrease response variability. Then, a final game that required high response variability was played by all the groups. The results showed that response variability in the final game of Groups S, E, and A was not significantly different from that of the control group, whereas the response variability of Groups O and N was significantly less than that of the control group. These findings suggest that patients in clinical settings may be able to maintain their behavioral variability if their self-chosen responses are clearly distinguishable from responses that they had not chosen.
