Relational Coherence, Rule-Following and Speaker Preference: Punishment and Extinction as Operations Are Similar, but Not for Everyone

This study examines the effects of extinction and punishment contingencies on rule-following, generalization, and speaker preference, with a focus on the impact of differential relational coherence. Participants were exposed to rules from three speakers with varying levels of relational coherence (100%, 50%, and 0%) across extinction and punishment contingencies. Group-based analyses indicated that extinction contingencies (relative to punishment) yielded greater variability in rule-following and increased rule-following behaviors with incoherent speakers. Rule-following behaviors generalized to novel tasks and speaker preference patterns indicated a tendency to favor the fully coherent speaker but also revealed a counterintuitive preference for consistently incoherent speakers over partially coherent ones. Individual analyses, however, revealed three different clusters of response patterns that indicated that approximately 60% of participants responded similarly under both punishment and extinction contingencies; with one exception, responses of the remaining two clusters of participants were differentiated by the two types of contingencies. These findings highlight the complex interplay between contingencies, relational coherence, rule-following, and speaker preference. Implications for both basic and applied research are discussed.