To determine whether selective reinforcement of pursuit rotor performance facilitates acquisition of skill and promotes its retention, five groups of subjects were individually trained for ten sessions of 15 trials each. Selective reinforcement of longer than average target contacts was introduced for one group of subjects during Sessions 6 and 7 and for another during Sessions 4 to 7. Continuous reinforcement of target contacts was introduced for two other groups. A control group received no reinforcement. Dependable improvements in time-on-target scores were obtained for all four sessions, but the superior performances were not maintained when reinforcement was withdrawn. The results suggest that this improvement as a function of feedback was attributable to motivational rather than learning or informational effects. (Author).

The objective was to determine whether pursuit rotor performance would be facilitated, and the level of achievement sustained, with the use of the reinforcement technique of shaping. The procedure used in this study was progressively lengthening, from session to session, the continuous target contact required to obtain a reinforcement, keeping the duration requirement constant within each session. Two groups of four subjects each practiced under the experimental conditions for ten 15-trial sessions. Reinforcement was provided during Sessions 2-7. Half of the experimental subjects improved appreciably during the reinforced practice. When reinforcement was withdrawn, the differences between the mean performance levels of the experimental subjects and a control group of eight subjects, who practiced without any reinforcement, were negligible.