Análise da competição entre os efeitos de consequências imediatas e efeitos de justificativas sobre o seguimento de regras

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effects of rules with additional justifications of Type 1 (reports about possible consequences of rule governed behavior) and Type 2 (reports about eventual approval or not, of the rule following) on the maintenance of rule governed behavior, after a change in programmed contingencies when this behavior starts to produce loss of reinforcer (points exchangeable for cash). To this end, 44 participants were exposed to a matching to sample procedure. The task was to point to each of the three comparison stimuli in a given sequence. Each comparison stimulus had only one dimension - color (C), thickness (T) or shape (S) - in common with the sample and differed on all other dimensions. Experiment included six conditions. Each condition was composed of four phases. Phases 1 and 3 started with the presentation of a rule related to programmed contingencies, while Phases 2 and 4 were marked by an unsignaled change, in such contingencies. Phases 1 and 3 differed only as to the justifications presented to rule following. The maintenance of the rule governed behavior avoided loss of the programmed reinforcer in Phases 1 and 3, and produced such loss in Phases 2 and 4. Overall, results showed that rules with justifications can alter the probability of the behavior specified by them to occur in the future. The role of control by rules in the explanation of behavior was discussed.