The effects of order, suggestion and agreement on non-verbal behavior of adults

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of rules presented in the form of order, suggestion and agreement on non-verbal behavior of adults. Twenty four undergraduate were exposed to a matching-to-sample procedure; the task consisted in pointing to each on of the comparison stimuli in a given sequence. In Phase 1 of Experiments I and II, rules were presented in the form of order, suggestion and agreement. In Experiment I, the order, suggestion or agreement described only one of the two response sequences which produced points (exchangeable for money). In Experiment II, these rules described both response sequences which produced points, one of them being the ordered, suggested or agreed sequence, and the other, the alternative sequence. In Phase 2 of both experiments, there was unsignalized changes in the contingencies of reinforcement. The results showed that the order, suggestion or agreement produced novel behavior. Additionally, showed that behavior established by order or agreement are more probable of being maintained after changes in the contingencies, when compared to behavior established by suggestion. It is discussed that the maintenance of rule-following is due, in part, to the formal properties of the rules.