Abstract
Learning contingencies without explicit reinforcement. Were conducted three experiments involving 121 adults university, in order to identify the variables that depended on the subjects demonstrated stable patterns of choice in the absence of explicit reinforcement. In the first two experiments, participants are exposed to physical matching to sample tasks without feedback in which either share a physical trait comparisons with the sample. The first explores the possibility that learning is due to negative reinforcement resulting from advancing to the next trial. The second tests the hypothesis that the possibility of continuing to apply a rule generated by the subject work as a form of positive reinforcement. The third experiment replicated the design of the second but arbitrary matching tasks. The results show that adult human with verbal skills are able to acquire discriminative behavior without explicit differential reinforcement, and that this behavior is not so much an escape but the result of the possibility of applying the rule consistently. Results are discussed in light of rule-governed behavior.
