Secondary and generalized reinforcement in human learning

54 female Ss first learned a paired adjective list and were given poker chips for correct responses. All Ss then learned a 2nd task, a nonsense syllable list, to the same criterion. 1 group exchanged tokens for 1 of 3 types of reward between Tasks 1 and 2 (generalized reinforcement), a 2nd group received only 1 type of reward (secondary reinforcement), and a 3rd could not exchange the tokens. Generalized reinforcement is somewhat more effective than secondary reinforcement in human verbal learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).