Three groups of 7 chronic schizophrenics were tested on a word-association task under conditions of verbal reinforcement, non-verbal reinforcement, or no reinforcement. Both verbal and non-verbal reinforcement were significantly more effective than no reinforcement in conditioning patients to the task but equally effective. Implications for the effectiveness of the token-economy paradigm in facilitating adequate response to abstract reinforcement by schizophrenics was contrasted with results of previous studies not employing the paradigm.
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