Investigating the effects of continuous reinforcement questions and histories on rule following, nine university students were exposed to a matching-to-sample task which was point out, sequentially, each one of three comparison stimuli in the presence of a contextual stimuli. The contingencies in Session 1 were changed in Session 2, reestablished in Session 3, and kept unchanged in Session 4, which began with the discrepant rule. No questions were made in Condition 1, whereas in Conditions 2 and 3, questions were asked. In Condition 2, the questions were more general than in Condition 3. Only five participants (two of the Condition 2 and the three of Condition 3) learned the task and performed in accordance with the contingency-based changes. Of these five, four stopped rule following in Session 4. The results should lead to clarify the role of the verbal environment in the determination of non-verbal behavior.
rule-following control; continuous reinforcement history; question-related effects; matching-to-sample procedure
