Differential Outcome May Facilitate Conditional Discrimination

Learning of conditional discriminations occurs after less trials when the correct response to each sample stimulus is followed by its own unique reinforcer. This has been called the differential outcome effect (DOE). It is a consistent finding reported in several studies with both non-humans and humans. Recently, the DOE has been incorporated into procedures to teach conditional discriminations to children with autism in early intervention programs. We will present data that support the differential outcome effect – and relate it to what we have called Functional Discrimination Training. At present, there does not seem to be a single behavioral theory that can explain the DOE . We will discuss some of the theories that attempt to explain the DOE.