Evaluating the interaction among instructions and superstitious behavior in concurrent schedules

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the interaction between instructions and “superstitious” behavior in an Ext component of a conc VI Ext schedule. Participants, high-school students, received correct or incorrect instructions at the beginning of the sessions. Correct instructions consisted of telling the participants that they should respond to only one component of the schedule; incorrect instructions consisted of telling the participants to respond to both components of the schedule. After and before the sessions, participants received questions that asked what they would need to do during sessions. Four of the seven participants responded both in Ext and in VI components of concurrent schedule at last in one session. Analysis of frequencies of responses in Ext components showed that three of these four participants responded during the whole session. Superstitious behavior (responding in Ext component) depended on variability generated by instructions or by non-verbal contingencies at the beginning of the sessions. Keywords: superstitious behavior; instruction; concurrent schedules.