Response and reinforcement in operant audiometry.

Variable success in audiometric assessment of young children with operant conditioning indicates the need for systematic examination of commonly employed techniques. The current study investigated response and reinforcement features of two operant discrimination paradigms with normal 17-month-old children. Findings indicated more responses prior to the onset of habituation when the response task was based on complex central processing skills (localization and coordination of auditory/visual space) versus simple detection. Use of animation in toy reinforcers resulted in more than a twofold increase in the number of subject responses. Results showed no significant difference in response conditioning rate or consistency for the response tasks and forms of reinforcement examined.