rlw@wxlvax.UUCP (Richard L. Wexelblat) (04/17/84)
[I don't know who owns these first two quotes] >> >Then I started praying and getting occasional results. >> Intermittent reinforcement is more effective than consistent >> reinforcement. >> Anyone with a background in behavioral psych care to fill in more? [ken perlow's reply] Well, not quite. Behaviors that have been conditioned through partial reinforcement take longer to learn, and they are more difficult to extinguish than those established through consistent reinforcement, since it is harder to distinguish true withdrawal of the stimulus. [me] But isn't there an effect wherein if you the subject succeeds once, he will continue trying, even if he never succeeds again? My professor called this the "dating effect" in that if a woman gives a man a date, he is likely to repeatedly ask her out again, even if she never says "yes" again. Pardon my ignorance of sources, but my Psych notebook is about 200 miles away at the moment. --Alan Wexelblat ("Four psych courses, and he thinks he knows everything!") (currently appearing at: ..decvax!ittvax!wxlvax!rlw. Please put "For Alan" in mail headers.)