Schedule control over following instructions comprised of novel combinations of verbal stimuli

To examine schedule control over following instructions comprised of novel combinations of verbal stimuli, three children, from 8 to 10 years old, received either continuous or intermittent reinforcement for a chain of buying and then following such instructions. Later, a series of training-extinction tests was conducted. During the training trials, the chain produced either continuous or intermittent reinforcement. During the extinction trials, buying produced instructions but following instructions never produced reinforcement. For one subject, a partial reinforcement extinction effect was detected for the chain. For two subjects, a stimulus correlated with extinction onset enhanced schedule control. Overall, the frequency of the chain covaried with the probability of reinforcement. The schedule effects detected and the methodology used extend the generality of an operant interpretation of instruction following to instructions comprised of novel combinations of verbal stimuli.