Influence of environmental contingency history on acquisition of new discriminations by chronic mental patients.

Acquisition of new discriminations on two-choice and two-dimensional (form, color) tasks under response-contingent reinforcement was evaluated as a function of nearly four years' history of total-life environments of responsecontingent versus noncontingent experiences. A total of 28 chronic mental patients, half from each history condition, participated in the study, and were prescreened on component skills and presence of a manipulable reinforcer. Groups were equated on demographic variables and current level of functioning. No differences in acquisition were found as a function of contingency history. However, correlational analyses with multiple measures of current functioning and responsiveness to treatment found differential relations to exist within groups. The latter relations suggest that the response-contingent environment resulted in greater attention to discriminative stimuli and greater consistency between task-related and extraneous behaviors.