Abstract

ESCOBAL, Giovana  and  GOYOS, Celso. Experimental apparatus of choice: development of computerized system for the study of choice behavior. Temas psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.22, n.2, pp. 363-376. ISSN 1413-389X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.9788/TP2014.2-08.

Perform choice is fundamental to adaptive behavior of any individual in his/her social environment, especially for intellectually or developmentally delayed people that often lack these skills in their repertoire. Conducting studies of choice that require the presentation of difficult-to-handle items may face insurmountable barriers due to choice procedures that are complicated to implement. The objective of the present study was to develop an Experimental Apparatus of Choice capable of mechanize the delivery and control of each exposure, which is an advantage since the tasks can be set up quickly and previously and presented several times, which would allow the reduction of application time, and enable reliable record of responses, latency time of task execution and consequence presentation. The apparatus consists of a rotating roundtable with buttons attached. The apparatus allows the application of reinforcement schedules of fixed and variable ratios, and fixed and variable intervals, besides the use of simple concurrent schedules of reinforcement or concurrent-chain schedules of reinforcement. The control is done directly by the computer, which automatically stores data and decreases the chances of manual errors. The use of computing resources seems quite promising, with the additional possibility of providing more frequent use to a greater number of people. A validation of the experimental apparatus of choice has been made by a study.

Keywords : Experimental apparatus; choice; preference; computerized technology; reliable record.

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