DURABILITY AND GENERALIZABILITY OF PERSISTENCE TRAINING

40 male and 40 female college students experienced either partial reinforcement (persistence training) or continuous reinforcement on either of 2 instrumental tasks (finger shuttle or button press) as therapy for failure-induced depression and subsequently were exposed to protracted failure (extinction). Following this initial extinction phase all Ss received continuous reinforcement on a common instrumental task (button press) as therapy and then encountered extinction (consecutive failure trials) for a 2nd time. Results show that increased persistence occasioned by partial-reinforcement therapy was able to survive interpolated periods of extinction and continuous reinforcement; that is, durable persistence training effects were shown. Furthermore, persistence training effects were shown to be generalizable (the persistence advantage associated with partial-reinforcement therapy transferred across topographically different responses), but the generalization process was not a complete one. The results are discussed within the frameworks of frustration theory and alternative cognitive theories. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1979 American Psychological Association.