Reinforcers Following Greater Effort are Preferred: A Within-Trial Contrast Effect.

Justification of effort is a form of cognitive dissonance in which reinforcers are more valued when they are harder to obtain. Presumably, giving the reinforcer greater value justifies the greater effort needed to obtain it. But we have proposed that within-trial contrast between the end of the effort and the reinforcer (or signal for reinforcement) is responsible for this effect. We have found a similar effect in nonsocial tasks with adult humans and children. More important, we have found the effect in pigeons. Furthermore, the model predicts that any relatively aversive event can be used to enhance the value of the reinforcer that follows it. In support, we have found the effect when the prior event consists of more rather than less effort (pecking), a long rather than a short delay, and the absence of food rather than food. We have also found that a pigeon's preference for food at one location can shift to a different location if acquiring food at the new location requires that the pigeon work harder to obtain food at the new location. We have also found that the anticipation of a relatively more aversive event is sufficient to improve the value of a reinforcer that occurs on other trials. The within-trial contrast model may also provide a more parsimonious account of other social psychological phenomena such as, traditional cognitive dissonance effects, intrinsic versus extrinsic reinforcement effects, and learned industriousness effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Behavior Analyst Today is the property of American Psychological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)