Richard H. Walters

Timing of punishment and the observation of consequences to others as determinants of response inhibition

Abstract Eighty Grade 1 and kindergarten children were assigned to one of eight conditions in a 2 × 4 factorial design involving two conditions of timing of punishment and four film conditions. Half the children under each film condition received punishment as they initiated a deviant response sequence; the remaining Ss were punished only after completing the deviation. After punishment training, Ss were assigned to one of four film conditions: film model rewarded for deviation; film model punished for deviation; no consequence to the film model; no film. Ss who received early punishment subsequently showed more resistance to deviation than Ss for whom punishment was delayed. There were significant differences among Ss under the four film conditions, with model-punished Ss showing relatively high resistance to deviation. A combination of early-punishment training and exposure to a punished model was most effective in producing inhibition. Subsequent tests with problem-solving tasks, the solution of which had been demonstrated in the films, revealed that Ss under model-rewarded and no-consequences conditions had learned from observation of the model; however, model-punished Ss did not perform significantly better in these tests than Ss who had not seen the film model.

Influence of response consequences to a social model on resistance to deviation

Abstract In a study of the influence of films showing response consequences to a model for resistance to deviation, children were assigned to one of four conditions: film model rewarded for deviation; model punished; no consequence to model; and no film. They were then tested in a “temptation” situation. As predicted, children under the model-rewarded and no-consequence conditions deviated relatively readily. In contrast, children in the model-punished and no-film groups deviated very little. However, when the prohibition on the deviant behavior was removed, children who had seen the model punished imitated the models behavior to as great an extent as the other children who had witnessed the models deviation.

Social Motivation, Dependency, and Susceptibility to Social Influence1

Publisher Summary Adult nurturance is a critical factor in establishing dependency in children and in facilitating the socialization process. This chapter presents the concept of a dependency or social drive, and focuses on various classes of responses that have been linked, in the child-training and social-psychological literature, with the concept of a dependency drive. The relationships between variables, such as social deprivation, dependency, self-esteem, and various measures of social influence can be largely understood in terms of eliciting and modification of orienting and attending responses, and the behavioral effects of variations in emotional arousal. To understand fully the nature of dependency behavior as a socially significant variable requires, an understanding of the acquisition of social judgments involving the labeling of behavior as dependent, and the conditions under which these judgments are evoked. The concept of dependency motive is not characteristics of human agents, but constructs, by means of which human beings order social phenomena, and evaluate behavior in terms of its acceptability or nonacceptability within a given cultural context. The motivational interpretations of behavior involve complicated evaluations having reference to the complex stimulus events as well as to the consequences that an agents behavior produces for others. Therefore, it is not surprising that evaluative judgments in terms of the intent or motive of the agent, rather than the consequences of the act, become relatively more frequent as a child grows older, and increasingly conforms to the standards to which the child is exposed.

The Role of the Distance Receptors in the Development of Social Responsiveness

Publisher Summary During the past decades, the development of social responsiveness in infancy and childhood has most frequently been structured in terms of the establishing of dependency habits and the emergence of a dependency drive. In a discussion of the relationships among variables, such as dependency, social deprivation, and various measures of social influence, Walters and Parke (1964), after pointing out that the concept of dependency is semi-evaluative in nature, offered an alternative analysis of the learning of social behavior in terms of the eliciting and and attending responses. This analysis led to the suggestion that the role of the distance receptors is of paramount importance in the development of social responsiveness in infancy and early childhood. This chapter attempts to marshal evidence, most of it of very recent date, that lends support to this suggestion.

Intensity of punishment, timing of punishment, and cognitive structure as determinants of response inhibition

Abstract Eighty-four Grade 1 boys were randomly assigned to 1 of 12 experimental or two control conditions. Experimental subjects were trained under one of six punishment conditions, varying in respect to intensity of punishment, timing of punishment, and cognitive structure. Results indicated that when cognitive structure was low, response inhibition was stronger after early, than after late punishment and that high-intensity punishment was a more effective inhibitor than low-intensity punishment. The provision of highcognitive structure was very effective for inducing response inhibition, especially when punishment was delivered late. Telemetered heart-rate data secured throughout the experiment further support the suggestion that, under certain conditions, response inhibition may be produced primarily by emotional arousal, and, under other conditions, by the availability of prohibition rules.

Modification of speech output of near-mute schizophrenics through social-learning procedures.

Abstract Over 16 training sessions, 4 patients were exposed to a model and reinforced with pennies for talking about scenes depicted on 35 mm slides; 4 patients were exposed to a model but received no reinforcements; 4 patients were neither exposed to a model nor reinforced. Extended training over 14 additional sessions was given to 7 patients. A marked increase in verbal output occurred over training sessions, but the treatment effect did not generalize to the ward setting.

Implications of Laboratory Studies of Aggression for the Control and Regulation of Violence

Laboratory studies of imitative behavior indicate that observation of aggressive social models, either in real life or in fantasy productions, increases the probability that the observers will behave in an aggressive manner if the model is rewarded or does not receive punishment for aggressive behav ior. On the other hand, punishment administered to an aggres sive model decreases the probability that imitation will occur. The permanence of effects of exposure to models is, however, still in doubt. Studies of the effects of rewarding aggression indicate that aggressive habits may be developed and main tained through intermittent rewards and may be generalized to situations other than those in which they are learned. The effects of punishing aggression are complex, since, while punish ment may suppress a response, the punitive agent can function as an aggressive model whose behavior may be imitated by the recipient of aggression. Nevertheless, there is good evidence that anticipation of punishment is an important factor in the regulation of aggression. Widely prevalent hypotheses con cerning the displacement of aggression, the cathartic effects of vicarious or direct participation in aggressive activity, and the association between frustration and aggression are brought into question by the research findings of the past few years.

Attention, anxiety, and rules in resistance-to-deviation in children

Abstract An experiment was conducted which investigated the effects of punishment and rule instructions on resistance-to-deviation. Grade II boys were asked to select, over two trials, one of each of two pairs of toys. Following one selection subjects received a high-intensity (104 db) tone, a moderate-intensity (88 db) tone, or no tone. For half the subjects, instructions prohibiting touching the toy immediately followed this procedure. Measures of touching the selected toy in a subsequent test period in which the child was left alone with the toy suggested that, in the absence of instructions, subjects who received the high-intensity tone played least with the selected toy, whereas, among subjects receiving instructions, those under moderate-intensity punishment showed the least “deviant” play behavior. Supplementary data, including heart-rate monitored during training, suggested that under certain conditions, the role of attention in punishment training may be as important as that of “anxiety.”

Delay of reinforcement gradients in children’s learning

Ninety Grade 2 children were randomly assigned to one of nine conditions in a study of the effects of concurrent delay of reward and delay of punishment on children’s learning. Three levels of delay of reward and three levels of delay of punishment, 0, 10, and 30 sec. in each case, were selected for study. Both increasing delay of reward and increasing delay of punishment significantly increased the number of errors made during learning.