Timeout as a reinforcer for errors in a serial position task.
Timeout can reward the errors it is meant to stop if the corner is nicer than the task.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at how timeout affects errors in a memory task. Adults repeated lists of numbers and got a brief timeout after every mistake.
They tracked whether the same wrong answers kept popping up. The goal was to see if timeout stops errors or feeds them.
What they found
Timeout made the same errors happen again and again. When the researchers removed timeout, the repeated mistakes dropped.
In short, the 'punisher' was secretly rewarding the wrong answers.
How this fits with other research
Solnick et al. (1977) later showed the same back-fire in kids with autism. Timeout only increased self-stim when the play area was boring.
Rutter et al. (1987) flipped the idea upside-down. They proved timeout can be a clear reinforcer if it gives a break from hard work.
Wahler (1969) had already warned us: timeout works best when you also shower the kid with praise for good behavior. Without that, you risk copying the 1974 lab result.
Why it matters
Before you put a student in the corner, ask: is my room less fun than the corner? If the answer is yes, timeout may strengthen the very behavior you hate. Enrich the setting, block sensory pay-offs, and pair brief removal with big praise for the right moves.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
After learning to press keys in a predetermined serial position sequence, with timeouts scheduled as a consequence of errors, monkeys developed stereotyped errors. As soon as a new trial started, the animals would make an error. On trial after trial, they pressed the same incorrect key at the first member of the sequence, even though they had previously learned the sequence. First-member errors occurred even when sequences of fully bright keys marking correct choices were presented. When timeout was eliminated as a consequence of one first-member error, subjects switched to an error that did produce the timeout. When all first-member errors failed to produce timeout the monkeys ceased responding. Both prefeeding and reduction in reinforcement density resulted in stereotyped errors occurring earlier in the session.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1974 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1974.21-3