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Theory of Learning with Constant, Variable, or Contingent Probabilities of Reinforcement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

W. K. Estes
W. K. Estes*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
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Abstract

The methods used in recent probabilistic learning models to generate mean curves of learning under random reinforcement are extended to the general case in which probability of reinforcement may vary in any specified manner as a function of trials and to cases in which probability of reinforcement on a given trial is contingent upon responses or outcomes of preceding trials.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 1957 , pp. 113 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © 1957 Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

This paper was prepared while the writer was in residence at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California. The research on which it is based was supported by a faculty research grant from the Social Science Research Council.

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