心理学的力の方向の可変性の函数としての消去抵抗

抄録

Problem. The extinction of lever-pressing responses (L) of a rat in a Skinner-box (A) which lead him so longer to food (G) may be viewed as due to the changed direction of a force f_{A, G}, i.e., from d_{A, G}, = d_{A, L} to d_{A, G} ≠ d_{A, L}. If, then, we provide some region X as a subgoal to reach food, the force f_{A, G} will change its direction from d_{A, L} to d_{A, X} at the time of extinction, although in this case, of course, the locomotion along the path w_{A, X, G} must be considerably more difficult or more painful than the locomotion along the path w_{A, L, G}.
Method. In this experiment, it was attempted to see. whether or not extinction is due to the changed direction a force f_{A, G}, by providing a situation where two paths lead to the same goal from the same starting-point : w_{A, E, G} and W_{A, F, G}in stylus maze (Figs. 1 and 2). In this situation d_{A, E, G} ≠ d_{A, F, G} because there exists no step w_{A, X} such that w_{A, X} ⊂ w_{A, E, G} and w_{A, X} ⊂ W_{A, F, G}. After each preliminary trial along the both paths : three groups of human adult subjects learned to trace the maze along w_{A, E, G} with as few errors as possible during the training period of 16 trials under three different condition : continuous (RR) and partial (RU and UR) reinforcement (Table 1). The maze was kept from subject's sight by a black cloth screen during the experimental period. Reinforcement (R in Table 1) was meant by a red light when the stylus was brought to A as a terminal point of w_{A, E, G}. In the period of extinction procedure (U₁, U₂, ..........U_n in Table 1), the resistance was measured by the number of trials along. w_{A, E, G} before the subject substituted w_{A, F, G} for w_{A, E, G}.
Results. Group RR showed much less resistance to extinction than the other groups. Between Groups RU and RS, however, no statistically significant difference was found (Table 3).
Discussion. These facts mean that after continuous reinforcement f_{A, G} is much more changeable in direction than after partial reinforcement, and that continuous or partial reinforcement is merely one of the factors which determine the changeability of the direction of a force f_{A, G} : relative amount of efforts required to locomote along the two paths seems to be another factor.