EFECTOS DE DIFERENTES TIPOS DE ENTRENAMIENTO EN EL APRENDIZAJE DE UNA DISCRIMINACIÓN CONDICIONAL.

All rights reserved.An experiment was designed to analyze the functional role of feedback, instructions and observation of a learning model using a second-order matching-to-sample task. Thirty nine students were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental groups which differed among them in the type of training used: direct exposure to the task, observation of a learning model (confederate) or use of precise instructions about the matching criteria. Some participants were offered an economic incentive for participation. It was found that precise instructions promoted a faster acquisition than the other types of training. The use of economic incentives had a differential effect depending on the type of training. It promoted a high performance on the modeling condition but it did not have any effect on the other two types of training. These results suggest that incentives can operate like a motivational or dispositional factor since they affect the establishment of abstract stimulus control.