Perda de pontos: análise de variáveis controladoras.

Abstract

The present study was composed of five experiments that aimed to investigate control exerted by loss of points and/or money. Each experiment had 15 university students as participants. Four experimental phases were created, three of which involved different probabilities of loss of points/money and one which did not involve losses. Experiment 1 had the objective of verifying whether points exchangeable for money, at the end of a task, would work as aversive stimuli in the present design. The results demonstrated that participants preferred phases which involved loss of points over the phase where there was no such loss. Experiment 2 had the objective of verifying whether the loss of points that were not exchangeable for money would work as aversive stimuli in the present design. Once again there was a preference for phases that involved point loss. It seems there was no difference between the loss of exchangeable or of non exchangeable points. Experiment 3 had the objective of verifying whether the presence of a cumulative counter of money, visible to participants, and exchanging points for money would increase the number of choices regarding the phase that did not involve loss. The 2nd Test showed an increase of choices towards the phase that did not involve losses. Experiment 4 had the objective of verifying whether the presence of verbal reports would change participants answers after the 2nd Test. Soliciting the report contributed in enabling participants contact with the contingencies, but this occurred only in the 3rd Test. Experiment 5 had the objective of verifying whether changes in instructions before the tests would affect responses. There was an 88.66% preference for the phase that did not involve losses in the 1st Test. Point/money loss has been shown to be effective as an aversive stimulus, especially when a cumulative counter is used, when verbal reports are solicited and when there is a new instruction before the tests.