[From Rick Marken (970904.0830)]
Bruce Gregory (970903.1720 EDT) --
I'm just trying to keep you out of arguments about whether
or not reinforcement is _real_. Reinforcement is a feature of a
model.
I suppose that's true. But Bruce A. has been claiming that
reinforcement is an _empirical_ phenomenon; he even gave a formula
for calculating reinforcement (change in response rate/unit change
in reinforcer). Reinforcement applies to the situation where
an _increase_ response rate is associated with an _increase_ in
reinforcer; we are measuring reinforcement if the ratio above
is _positive_. One of my points has been that this empirical
phenomenon is not real in the sense that it is not seen in all
situations where psychologists have said that it is seen; in
particular, it is not seen when an animal is feeding itself in
an operant chamber. In that case, the relationship between response
rate and reinforcer is _not_ positive (the reinforcement phenomenon);
rather it is negative. So I am saying that reinforcement is not
actually (really?) observed in operant experiments, except in the
special case where the animal first discovers the means to feed
itself.
My other point is based on a model. The control model shows that
it will be _appear_ as though contingencies ("schedules
of reinforcement") control behavior
ยทยทยท
--
Richard S. Marken Phone or Fax: 310 474-0313
Life Learning Associates e-mail: rmarken@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~rmarken