Secondary Reinforcement and the Reconditioning Hypothesis

Summary —According to the reconditioning hypothesis of secondary reinforcement (S'), a stimulus must be reassociated with primary reinforcement in order to maintain its St effects. This hypothesis was tested in a single-unit T-maze in which a correct response was followed by the S' stimulus. There was evidence for St effects when the stimulus was re-paired with primary reinforcement prior to each test trial. However, there was no evidence for S when reconditioning trials were not administered. The results from the former condition were interpreted as supporting the reconditioning hypothesis, while the latter were considered inconsistent with the associative explanation of St effects.