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Alterações ambientais independentes da reposta e sua interação com o relato verbal.
Abstract
Investigou-se os efeitos da exposição a eventos aversivos incontroláveis ou controláveis sobre o desempenho posterior a tal exposição e se estes efeitos seriam alterados pela solicitação de relatos do desempenho. Participaram 40 adultos distribuídos em 3 grupos experimentais: Controle, Fuga e Emparelhado. Na Fase 1 os participantes do Grupo Fuga e Emparelhado foram submetidos a 40 tentativas de apresentação de um som por até 5s: os participantes dos grupos Fuga podiam desligar os sons pressionando teclas no computador e os participantes do grupo Emparelhados foram submetidos à mesma distribuição e duração de sons de um participante dos grupo Fuga, mas não podiam desligar os sons. Os participantes também foram solicitados a fazer relatos sobre a tarefa e seu desempenho, variando-se o número de solicitações e as tentativas em que ocorreram. Todos os participantes passaram pela Fase 2 e todos podiam desligar o som clicando o mouse sobre ícones na tela do computador. Os resultados apontaram que em geral os participantes não tiveram desempenhos caracterizados como comportamento supersticioso ou desamparo aprendido e que padrões de respostas na Fase 1 estão relacionados com os desempenhos na Fase 2. Quanto ao relato, dizer que sabiam o que fazer não foi preditivo de sucesso na Fase 2, mas sucessivas solicitações de relato parecem ter promovido descrição, pelo participante, de seu comportamento e de auto-observação.
... Comparing illusion of control with superstitious behavior may be an important opportunity to do this kind of integration. Recent data indicate the need to study correlations between superstitious behavior, self-reports, and the behavior of groups of people (Benvenuti, de Toledo, Simões, & Bizarro, 2017;Caldas & Andery, 2016;Perroni & Andery, 2009). Benvenuti et al. (2017), for example, investigated superstitious behavior in a free-operant procedure by adding some measures of self-reports that are commonly used in studies of the illusion of control. ...
The notion of superstitious behavior can provide a basic background for understanding such notions as illusions and beliefs. The present study investigated the social mechanism of the transmission of superstitious behavior in an experiment that utilized participant replacement. The sample was composed of a total of 38 participants. Participants performed a task on a computer: they could click a colored rectangle using the mouse. When the rectangle was in a particular color, the participants received points independently of their behavior (variable time schedule). When the color of the rectangle was changed, no points were presented (extinction). Under an Individual Exposure condition, ten participants worked alone on the task. Other participants were exposed to the same experimental task under a Social Exposure condition, in which each participant first learned by observation and then worked on the task in a participant replacement (chain) procedure. The first participant in each chain in the Social Exposure condition was a confederate who worked on the task “superstitiously,” clicking the rectangle when points were presented. Superstitious responding was transmitted because of the behavior of the confederate. This also influenced estimates of personal control. These findings suggest that social learning can facilitate the acquisition and maintenance of superstitious behavior and the illusion of control. Our data also suggest that superstitious behavior and the illusion of control may involve similar learning principles.
Learned helplessness effect has been observed across a wide range of species. This paper introduces the basic characteristics oflearned helplessness experiments performed with infrahwnan subjects. A critical analysis of most of these experiments shows procedural and measurement problems in addition to a low defftional precision. Some results produced by a modified procedure are reported, which were able to generate more accurate data (compared to conventional procedures) with respect to the operant learning under study. It is proposed that well established learned helplessness experiments can make significant contributions to behavior analysis, particularly to the investigation of aversive control and to the effects of non-contingency.
Experimental conditions explored the development of fallacious rules and assessed the rates and durations of superstitious responding by children under the influence of standard and second-order response-independent reinforcement. During the presentation of computer-generated math problems, subjects in Experiment 1 had access to a computer and keyboard. Group 1 received second-order, random-time (RT) reinforcement by way of a coin toss graphic procedure (mean reinforcement rate of 1/min). This procedure rendered an effect analogous to a "slot-machine" and matching icons produced monetary reinforcement displayed on the computer screen. A second group obtained response-independent reinforcement according to a standard random-time (RT) 30-s schedule (mean reinforcement rate of 2/min). A control group received no scheduled consequences but was exposed to the same demand conditions. After 10 min, students in all groups answered questions regarding "why" they had performed problems. Subsequently, experimental subjects were exposed to the same conditions for 10 min after which reinforcement was terminated; however, a series of problems remained available for solving. Over the course of the experiment, and particularly during extinction, Group 1 subjects performed at higher rates and longer durations. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, but it examined the effects of second-order response-independent reinforcement on fixed-time (FT) schedules. Students who had been exposed to second-order response-independent reinforcement demonstrated higher rates and longer durations of problem solving. Outcomes suggest that, independent of FT or RT schedules, second-order response-independent contingencies appear to generate elaborate fallacious rules and particularly long durations of superstitious responding.
Recent research has shown superstitious behaviour and illusion of control in human subjects exposed to the negative reinforcement conditions that are traditionally assumed to lead to the opposite outcome (i.e. learned helplessness). The experiments reported in this paper test the generality of these effects in two different tasks and under different conditions of percentage (75% vs. 25%) and distribution (random vs. last-trials) of negative reinforcement (escape from uncontrollable noise). All three experiments obtained superstitious behaviour and illusion of control and question the generality of learned helplessness as a consequence of exposing humans to uncontrollable outcomes.
Learned helplessness and superstition accounts of uncontrollability predict opposite results for subjects exposed to noncontingent reinforcement. Experiment 1 used the instrumental-cognitive triadic design proposed by Hiroto and Seligman (1975) for the testing of learned helplessness in humans, but eliminated the "failure light" that they introduced in their procedure. Results showed that Yoked subjects tend to superstitious behavior and illusion of control during exposure to uncontrollable noise. This, in turn, prevents the development of learned helplessness because uncontrollability is not perceived. In Experiment 2, the failure feedback manipulation was added to the Yoked condition. Results of this experiment replicate previous findings of a proactive interference effect in humans—often characterized as learned helplessness. This effect, however, does not support learned helplessness theory because failure feedback is needed for its development. It is argued that conditions of response-independent reinforcement commonly used in human research do not lead to learned helplessness, but to superstitious behavior and illusion of control. Different conditions could lead to learned helplessness, but the limits between superstition and helplessness have not yet been investigated.
Reviews the literature which examined the effects of exposing organisms to aversive events which they cannot control. Motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects of uncontrollability are examined. It is hypothesized that when events are uncontrollable the organism learns that its behavior and outcomes are independent, and this learning produces the motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects of uncontrollability. Research which supports this learned helplessness hypothesis is described along with alternative hypotheses which have been offered as explanations of the learned helplessness effect. The application of this hypothesis to rats and man is examined. (114 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined whether pretreatment of mongrel dogs with noncontingent shocks is a necessary or merely sufficient condition to obtain interference with the subsequent acquisition of escape-avoidance responding in a shuttle box. 3 Ss pretreated with an immediate-escape procedure in a harness or only adaptation to a harness subsequently acquired escape-avoidance responding in a shuttle box. 3 Ss pretreated with an escape procedure that selectively reinforced long response latencies and interresponse times, on the other hand, failed to acquire escape-avoidance responding. Such interference, sometimes interpreted in terms of learned helplessness when preceded by a history of noncontingent shocks, need not be due to such a history. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Notes that learned helplessness-the interference with instrumental responding following inescapable aversive events-has been found in animals and man. The present study tested for the generality of the debilitation produced by uncontrollable events across tasks and motivational systems. 4 experiments with a total of 96 college students were simultaneously conducted: (a) pretreatment with inescapable, escapable, or control aversive tone followed by shuttlebox escape testing; (b) pretreatment with insoluble, soluble, or control discrimination problems followed by anagram solution testing; (c) pretreatments with inescapable, escapable, or control aversive tone followed by anagram solution testing; and (d) pretreatments with insoluble, soluble, or control discrimination problems followed by shuttlebox escape testing. Learned helplessness was found with all 4 experiments: Both insolubility and inescapability produced failure to escape and failure to solve anagrams. It is suggested that inescapability and insolubility both engendered expectancies that responding is independent of reinforcement. The generality of this process suggests that learned helplessness may be an induced "trait." (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
(This reprinted article originally appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1948, Vol 38, 168–272. The following abstract of the original article appeared in PA, Vol 22:4299.) A pigeon is brought to a stable state of hunger by reducing it to 75% of its weight when well fed. It is put into an experimental cage for a few minutes each day. A food hopper attached to the cage may be swung into place so that the pigeon can eat from it. A solenoid and a timing relay hold the hopper in place for 5 sec at each reinforcement. If a clock is now arranged to present the food hopper at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird's behavior, operant conditioning usually takes place. The bird tends to learn whatever response it is making when the hopper appears. The response may be extinguished and reconditioned. The experiment might be said to demonstrate a sort of superstition. The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behavior and the presentation of food, although such a relation is lacking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This research examined three explanations for the "superstitious" behavior of pigeons under frequent fixed-time delivery of food: accidental response-reward contingency, stimulus substitution, and elicited species-typical appetitive behavior. The behavior observed in these studies consisted of occasional postfood locomotion away from the food hopper, and a predominant pattern of activity directed toward the hopper wall (wall-directed behavior), including approaching, stepping side to side, scratching with the feet, bumping with the breast, pendulum movements of the extended neck, and head bobbing, though not pecking. The consistency of these behavior patterns argued against explanation by accidental response contingencies, and the complexity of behavior was incompatible with the classic stimulus-substitution account. These studies also showed that: (1) response contingencies and prior stimulus experience can modify wall-directed behavior, but within definable limits; (2) pecking sometimes can be obtained in birds of specific strains, and by providing extended training; (3) placing the hopper in the floor at the center of a large chamber replaces wall-directed behavior with circling in a manner that resembles ground foraging for food. We conclude that superstitious behavior under periodic delivery of food probably develops from components of species-typical patterns of appetitive behavior related to feeding. These patterns are elicited by a combination of frequent food presentations and the supporting stimuli present in the environment.
The bias (B'H) and discriminability (A') of college students' self-reports about choices made in a delayed identity matching-to-sample task were studied as a function of characteristics of the response about which they reported. Each matching-to-sample trial consisted of two, three, or four simultaneously presented sample stimuli, a 1-s retention interval, and two, three, or four comparison stimuli. One sample stimulus was always reproduced among the comparisons, and choice of the matching comparison in less than 800 ms produced points worth chances in a drawing for money. After each choice, subjects pressed either a "yes" or a "no" button to answer a computer-generated query about whether the choice met the point contingency. The number of sample and comparison stimuli was manipulated across experimental conditions. Rates of successful matching-to-sample choices were negatively correlated with the number of matching-to-sample stimuli, regardless of whether samples or comparisons were manipulated. As in previous studies, subjects exhibited a pronounced bias for reporting successful responses. Self-report bias tended to become less pronounced as matching-to-sample success became less frequent, an outcome consistent with signal-frequency effects in psychophysical research. The bias was also resistant to change, suggesting influences other than signal frequency that remain to be identified. Self-report discriminability tended to decrease with the number of sample stimuli and increase with the number of comparison stimuli, an effect not attributable to differential effects of the two manipulations on matching-to-sample performance. Overall, bias and discriminability indices revealed effects that were not evident in self-report accuracy scores. The results indicate that analyses based on signal-detection theory can improve the description of correspondence between self-reports and their referents and thus contribute to the identification of environmental sources of control over verbal self-reports.
Adults' self-reports about their choices in a delayed matching-to-sample task were studied as a function of the number of elements (one, two, or three) in a compound sample stimulus. Signal-detection analyses were used to examine control of self-reports by the number of sample elements, by the speed and accuracy of choices reported about, and by several events contingent on self-reports. On each matching-to-sample trial, a sample element appeared as one of two comparison stimuli. Choice of the matching element, if made within 500 ms of the onset of the comparison stimuli, produced points worth money or chances in a drawing for money, depending on the subject. After each choice, subjects pressed either a "yes" or "no" button to answer a computer-generated query about whether the choice met the point contingency. The number of sample elements in the matching-to-sample task varied across trials, and events contingent on self-reports varied across experimental conditions. In Experiment 1, the conditions were defined by different combinations of feedback messages and point consequences contingent on self-reports, but self-reports were systematically influenced only by the sample-stimulus manipulation. Self-report errors increased with the number of sample elements. False alarms (inaccurate reports of success) were far more common than misses (inaccurate reports of failure), and false alarms were especially likely after choices that were correct but too slow to meet the point contingency. Sensitivity (A') of self-reports decreases as the number of sample elements increased. In addition, self-reports were more sensitive to choice accuracy than to choice speed. All subjects showed a pronounced bias (B'H) for reporting successful responses, although the bias was reduced as the number of sample elements increased and successful choices became less frequent. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the failure of point contingencies to influence self-reports in the first experiment was not due to a general ineffectiveness of the point consequences. Rates of inaccurate self-reports decreased when they resulted in point losses and increased when they resulted in point gains.
The first three pecks on a response key by experimentally naive pigeons produced grain reinforcements. Thereafter, for approximately 50 experimental sessions and under a variety of schedule conditions, grain was presented independently of the subjects' behaviors. The pigeons continued to peck the response key ?superstitiously? throughout the 50 sessions. The results suggest that superstitions are commonplace?not relatively infrequent or abnormal events?in the behavior of pigeons. 1970 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
Undergraduates' button presses occasionally made available points that were exchangeable for money. Lights over left and right buttons were respectively correlated with multiple random-ratio random-interval components. During interruptions of the multiple schedule, students filled out sentence-completion guess sheets. When shaping of these guesses produced performance descriptions (e.g., "press slowly" for the left button and "press fast" for the right), button-pressing rates typically were consistent with the verbal behavior even when rates were opposite to those ordinarily maintained by the respective schedules. When shaping instead produced contingency descriptions (e.g., the button works "after a random number of presses" or "a random time since it worked before"), pressing rates were inconsistently related to the descriptions; for some students descriptions of ratio contingencies generated higher corresponding pressing rates than were produced by descriptions of interval contingencies, but for others contingency descriptions and pressing rates were unrelated.
Undergraduate students' presses on left and right buttons occasionally made available points exchangeable for money. Blue lights over the buttons were correlated with multiple random-ratio random-interval components; usually, the random-ratio schedule was assigned to the left button and the random-interval to the right. During interruptions on the multiple schedule, students filled out sentence-completion guess sheets (e.g., The way to earn points with the left button is to...). For different groups, guesses were shaped with differential points also worth money (e.g., successive approximations to "press fast" for the left button), or were instructed (e.g., Write "press slowly" for the left button), or were simply collected. Control of rate of pressing by guesses was examined in individual cases by reversing shaped or instructed guesses, by instructing pressing rates, and/or by reversing multiple-schedule contingencies. Shaped guesses produced guess-consistent pressing even when guessed rates opposed those characteristic of the contingencies (e.g., slow random-ratio and fast random-interval rates), whereas guesses and rates of pressing rarely corresponded after unsuccessful shaping of guesses or when guessing had no differential consequences. Instructed guesses and pressing were inconsistently related. In other words, when verbal responses were shaped (contingency-governed), they controlled nonverbal responding. When they were instructed (rule-governed), their control of nonverbal responding was inconsistent: the verbal behavior sometimes controlled, sometimes was controlled by, and sometimes was independent of the nonverbal behavior.
The effect of reinforced verbal descriptions on key-pressing rate was studied in the context of reinforcement for pressing on schedules opposed to the verbal description and schedules delivering a constant or randomly chosen point value regardless of pressing rate (nondifferential schedules). Undergraduates' key presses produced points exchangeable for lottery tickets on alternating schedules. Subjects experienced one of four manipulations. In Experiment 1, after schedule control had been demonstrated using a "medium rate" schedule for each of two response keys, subjects were awarded maximum points for choosing one of five verbal descriptions of "the best way to earn points" for each key. Subjects experienced either (a) maximum points for verbal descriptions of "press very fast" for one key and "press very slowly" for the other, with the schedule gradually moved from medium to oppose this description, or (b) maximum schedule points for a very fast rate on one key and very slow rate on the other, with the maximum points for verbal descriptions gradually moved to oppose the schedule. Key-pressing rates conformed to the active schedule, not to the verbal performance description. In Experiment 2 subjects received maximum points for verbal descriptions of "press very fast" for one key and "press very slowly" for the other while the same nondifferential schedule was operative for both keys. Correspondence of pressing rate to verbal description was either complete, transient, or absent. The precise discriminative control of the schedules employed may account for less verbal response-rate control in the present versus past research. Possible differences between computer- and experimenter-generated verbal behavior are discussed.
Undergraduates participated in two experiments to develop methods for the experimental analysis of self-reports about behavior. The target behavior was the choice response in a delayed-matching-to-sample task in which monetary reinforcement was contingent upon both speed and accuracy of the choice. In Experiment 1, the temporal portion of the contingency was manipulated within each session, and the presence and absence of feedback about reinforcement was manipulated across sessions. As the time limits became stricter, target response speeds increased, but accuracy and reinforcement rates decreased. When feedback was withheld, further reductions in speed and reinforcement occurred, but only at the strictest time limit. Thus, the procedures were successful in producing systematic variation in the speed, accuracy, and reinforcement of the target behavior. Experiment 2 was designed to assess the influence of these characteristics on self-reports. In self-report conditions, each target response was followed by a computer-generated query: "Did you earn points?" The subject reported by pressing "Yes" or "No" buttons, with the sole consequence of advancing the session. In some cases, feedback about reinforcement of the target response followed the reports; in other cases it was withheld. Self-reports were less accurate when the target responses occurred under greater time pressure. When feedback was withheld, the speed of the target response influenced reports, in that the probability of a "Yes" report increased directly with the speed of accurate target responses. In addition, imposing the self-report procedure disrupted target performance by reducing response speeds at the strictest time limit. These results allow investigation of issues in both behavioral and cognitive psychology. More important, the overall order in the data suggests promise for the experimental analysis of self-reports by human subjects.
This experiment determined whether superstitious spatial variability would occur when experimental contingencies specified only the numerical dimensions of behavior. Six college students participated in a task in which icon changes were contingent on depressions of a button. A randomly selected number of unavoidable failures to change the icons alternated across the experiment with blocks of five consecutive unavoidable successes. Unnecessary changes in the location of the cursor persisted for three participants at high frequency after failures of button depressions to change the icons. The findings were related to discussions about the prevalence and functions of superstition in the variation and selection of human behavior.
The learned helplessness hypothesis is criticized and reformulated. The old hypothesis, when applied to learned helplessness in humans, has two major problems: (a) It does not distinguish between cases in which outcomes are uncontrollable for all people and cases in which they are uncontrollable only for some people (univervsal vs. personal helplessness), and (b) it does not explain when helplessness is general and when specific, or when chronic and when acute. A reformulation based on a revision of attribution theory is proposed to resolve these inadequacies. According to the reformulation, once people perceive noncontingency, they attribute their helplessness to a cause. This cause can be stable or unstable, global or specific, and internal or external. The attribution chosen influences whether expectation of future helplessness will be chronic or acute, broad or narrow, and whether helplessness will lower self-esteem or not. The implications of this reformulation of human helplessness for the learned helplessness model of depression are outlined.
The logical features of causality (necessary connection, succession, and contiguity) are examined in regard to respondent and operant behaviors. It is emphasized that operant behavior as emitted behavior breaks with any criterion of precedent causality. It is examined how Skinner tried to approach causality as functional relation, without overcoming a pure phenomenological analysis. The category of contingency is submitted to a conceptual analysis, and its application to superstition, respondent and operant conditioning is critically reviewed. A reinterpretation of contingency as conditionality is proposed, and the analysis of the organization of behavior is advocated in terms of interdependent functional and occurrence contingencies.
Undergraduates reported about their performance on a delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) task in which monetary reinforcers depended on both speed and accuracy. They made the reports by pressing “Yes” or “No” buttons to answer computer- presented queries about the speed, accuracy, or reinforcement of their performance on the just-completed DMTS trial. Reports about accuracy were positively, but not strongly, correlated with actual performance. Reports about speed were consistently biased in favor of affirmative reports, with subjects reporting that their DMTS responses were fast enough to earn reinforcement, regardless of actual response speed. Reports about reinforcement showed substantial intersubject variability. Manipulating the interval between DMTS performance and the self-report (from 3 s to 27 s) had no systematic influence on the correspondence between reports and performance, regardless of whether a distractor task was required during the interval. These results are inconsistent with an hypothesis that individuals performing speeded choice tasks directly monitor both speed and accuracy. The experiment illustrates the viability of studying verbal self-reports as operant behavior under discriminative control of some, but possibly not all, aspects of the reported performance.
The present study examined stereotyped behaviors developed during human performances that were generated by response-dependent intermittent schedules of reinforcement. Thirty university students were assigned to either fixed-interval 30-s or fixed-ratio 30-s schedules in which points or monetary reinforcers were produced only by presses on the number keys of a 41-key computer keyboard. Behavior patterns developed by all subjects were classified into four categories: optimal, random, unique, and general stereotypes. The general stereotypes category was further subdivided into five idiosyncratic types: connection, order, shift, repeat, and restriction. Analysis of the data demonstrated the role of contiguity: Whatever behavior happened to precede reinforcers was repeated even though reinforcers did not depend on that behavior. These findings support the argument that much of idiosyncratic and stereotyped human behavior is produced and maintained by contingencies of reinforcement, rather than schedule-induced or adjunctive behavior.
The “learned helplessness” model of human depression requires that humans demonstrate deficits similar to animals following exposure to noncontingent events. However, the feedback procedure usually employed in the triadic instrumental induction phase represents a confound in studies of the interference effect in humans. Matute (1994) concluded that the feedback procedure is necessary for the interference effect, which is thus due to feedback induced failure rather than learned helplessness. As an alternative, we hypothesize that feedback alerts participants to noncontingency, such that subsequent interference is not inconsistent with learned helplessness theory. The present study evaluates these competing claims by incorporating a novel manipulation designed to promote the perception of noncontingency in Matute's (1994) triadic no-feedback-procedure induction. A second noncontingent yoked group received the same tones as the usual direct yoked group, but in random order so as to disrupt the “late trials” distribution of short-latency tones which promotes superstitious responding. As predicted, the random-yoking procedure inhibited superstition. The interference effect was observed in the random-yoked but not the direct-yoked triad. Thus random-yoked participants may have developed the expectation of noncontingency which is critical to learned helplessness. It is concluded that the confounded feedback procedure is not necessary for the interference effect and should be avoided in future research.
O presente trabalho foi uma tentativa de produzir desamparo aprendido com sujeitos humanos e, também, de proporcionar uma descrição acurada das contingências em vigor para os grupos submetidos tanto à controlabilidade quanto à incontrolabilidade. Para tanto, dois experimentos foram realizados. No primeiro experimento, o objetivo foi: investigar os efeitos de procedimento similar ao utilizado por Hatfield &Job (1998) na produção de desamparo aprendido. Nesse procedimento, diferentemente do procedimento mais comum utilizado para a distribuição dos estímulos aversivos no grupo acoplado, a ordem de apresentação desses estímulos (no caso, sons estridentes) foi randomizada, a fim de impedir a concentração de estímulos com determinadas características (no caso, sons de curta duração) em determinados momentos do treino. No segundo experimento, além desse mesmo objetivo, pretendeu-se verificar quais os efeitos de solicitações de relato verbal sobre as contingências em vigor, realizadas em algumas tentativas, ao longo da fase de treino, na produção de desamparo aprendido. Participaram do primeiro experimento 28 participantes distribuídos em três grupos: Contingente (9 participantes), Acoplado (9 participantes) e Controle (10 participantes). Para os participantes do grupo Contingente a resposta de teclar F1 três vezes interrompia o som na fase de treino; já no teste, a resposta de clicar, também três vezes, sobre um de três retângulos (o da esquerda) apresentados na tela do computador interrompia o som. Para os participantes do grupo Acoplado, nenhuma resposta nas teclas disponíveis interrompia o som na fase de treino, já no teste a mesma resposta requerida para os participantes do grupo Contingente foi requisitada. Os participantes do grupo Controle somente foram submetidos à fase de teste, na qual a mesma resposta requerida para os grupos Contingente e Acoplado foi requisitada. Em ambas as fases, quarenta sons foram apresentados aos participantes deste experimento. No segundo experimento, 20 participantes foram distribuídos em dois grupos: Contingente Relato Verbal (10 participantes) e Acoplado Relato Verbal (10 participantes). O procedimento para os participantes destes dois grupos foi igual ao dos participantes do grupo Contingente e Acoplado do Experimento 1, exceto que, em oito tentativas ao longo da fase de treino, era solicitado que o participante descrevesse a contingência em vigor. Os resultados obtidos no primeiro experimento mostraram que, o procedimento de mudança na ordem das durações do som adotado para os participantes do grupo Acoplado impediu a concentração de sons de curta duração nas tentativas finais do treino e a produção de comportamento supersticioso. Em relação ao desamparo aprendido, apesar de mais participantes do grupo Acoplado terem aprendido as respostas requeridas, quando comparados com os participantes dos outros dois grupos, o desamparo aprendido pôde ser observado, no seu grau mais acentuado (não aprendizagem) em um participante e, em um grau menos acentuado (dificuldade de aprendizagem) no responder de dois participantes. Todavia, considerando as análises estatísticas realizadas, o grupo Acoplado não diferiu significativamente dos outros dois grupos. No segundo experimento, em relação ao procedimento empregado para o grupo Acoplado Relato Verbal, os mesmos resultados obtidos no Experimento 1, com o grupo Acoplado, foram observados no grupo Acoplado Relato Verbal. Em relação ao desamparo aprendido, mais uma vez, os resultados obtidos no segundo experimento mostraram-se muito semelhantes aos resultados obtidos no Experimento 1. Neste segundo experimento, apesar de mais participantes do grupo Acoplado Relato Verbal terem aprendido as respostas requeridas, o desamparo aprendido foi observado, em seu maior grau, no responder de dois participantes desse grupo e, em seu grau menos drástico em dois participantes. Em suma, apenas sete participantes dos dois grupos Acoplados apresentaram desamparo aprendido em algum grau. Porém, 12 participantes, o que corresponde a mais de 63% dos sujeitos expostos aos estímulos aversivos incontroláveis não tiveram o desempenho prejudicado em função dessa exposição. Dessa maneira, o presente estudo não produziu o desamparo aprendido com humanos e, as análises estatísticas realizadas confirmam essa conclusão. Quanto à solicitação dos relatos verbais, nota-se que mais de 50% dos participantes de cada um dos dois grupos relatou a contingência planejada em alguma oportunidade. Observou-se, também, que dos cinco participantes do grupo Acoplado Relato Verbal que descreveram a contingência planejada para a fase de treino, ou seja, a incontrolabilidade, quatro desses participantes apresentaram o desamparo aprendido em algum grau This study attempted to produce learned helplessness with humans subjects exposed to controllable and to incontrollable events. Two experiments were carried out. Experiment 1 investigated the effects of a procedure similar to one used by Hatfield &Job (1998) on the production of learned helplessness. In this procedure, differently from the most common used on the distribution of the aversive stimuli for the yoked group, the order of the stimuli (strident sounds) presentation was randomized with the intent of preventing concentration of stimuli with a certain characteristic (short duration) at some specific moments of training. Experiment 2 tried to investigate the effects of requesting verbal reports about the working contingencies during some trials of the training on learned helplessness. Experiment 1 had 28 participants, distributed into 3 groups: Contingent (9 participants), Yoked (9 participants), and Control (10 participants). During training, pressing F1 3 times eliminated the sound for the Contingent group; during test, pressing 3 times one of the 3 rectangles (the one on the left) presented on a computer keyboard eliminated the sound. For the Yoked group, during training none of the available responses could eliminate the sound, and during test pressing 3 times the left rectangle could eliminate the sound. Control group was submitted only to test and the response that eliminated the sound was the same as for the other groups during test. In Experiment 1, during training, sounds were presented 40 times for each participant and during test another 40 times. Experiment 2 had 20 participants distributed into two groups: Contingent Verbal Report (10 participants) and Yoked Verbal Report (10 participants). The procedure for these two groups was the same as for Contingent and Yoked groups in Experiment 1, except that for 8 trials during training participants were asked to give verbal reports describing the working contingencies. Results of Experiment 1 show that the procedure used with the Yoked group of changing the order of sounds duration prevented concentration of short duration sounds in the final trials of training and also prevented superstitious behavior. In relation to learned helplessness, although more participants in Yoked group than in Contingent and Control groups learned the requested response to eliminate the sound, learned helplessness in its sharpest mode (not learning) was observed in one participant performance, and in its moderate mode (learning difficulty) was observed in two participant performance. Notwithstanding, the Yoked group did not statistically differ from Contingent and Control groups. Experiment 2 replicated results of Experiment 1 in relation to Yoked Verbal Report groups procedure. In relation to learned helplessness, again results resemble Experiment 1s in that although more participants in the Yoked Verbal Report group than in Contingent Verbal Report group learned the required response, learned helplessness was observed in two participants in its most sharpened mode, and in other two participants performance in its moderate mode. For both Yoked groups in total, seven participants presented learned helplessness in some way, and for 12 participants (63% of total number of participants exposed to uncontrollable aversive stimulus) no prejudice of learning was observed. Therefore, none of the two experiments produced learned helplessness with humans and statistical analysis confirm this result. In relation to verbal reports, 60% of the participants in each group reported the planned contingency at some moment. For four out of five participants in the Yoked Verbal Report group that described the planned contingency, that is, uncontrollability, learned helplessness was in some mode observed
Twenty undergraduate students were exposed to single response-independent schedules of reinforcer presentation, fixed-time or variable-time, each with values of 30 and 60 s. The reinforcer was a point on a counter accompanied by a red lamp and a brief buzzer. Three color signals were presented, without consistent relation to reinforcer or to the subjects' behavior. Three large levers were available, but the subjects were not asked to perform any particular behavior. Three of the 20 subjects developed persistent superstitious behavior. One engaged in a pattern of lever-pulling responses that consisted of long pulls after a few short pulls; the second touched many things in the experimental booth; the third showed biased responding called sensory superstition. However, most subjects did not show consistent superstitious behavior. Reinforcers can operate effectively on human behavior even in the absence of a response-reinforcer contingency and can, in some cases, shape stable superstitious patterns. However, superstitious behavior is not a consistent outcome of exposure of human subjects to response-independent reinforcer deliveries.
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