Modes of reinforcement and gender and culture of experimenter and subject: effects of "alien" and external reinforcement for Japanese and American men and women

In this study, we examined external and "alien" reinforcement (ER and AR. respectively) as a factor in social learning, and studied the combined effects of culture and reinforcement mode. A female (Experiment 1) and a male (Experiment 2) experimenters conducted experimental sessions. Both men and women, who grew up in the same culture as the experimenter, participated and performed the experimental task. A three-way interaction effect of experimenter gender, culture, and reinforcement mode was found on task performance. And the effect was more pronounced for a Japanese experimenter. A female and a male experimenters conducted Experiments 3 and 4, respectively; however participants this time were men and women who grew up in different cultures than the experimenter. Results indicated that the pattern of the subject gender and reinforcement mode interaction effect, when the experimenter was Japanese with American subjects, was exactly opposite to that when the experimenter was American. These experiments showed that AR was as effective for social learning as ER, and that the cultural backgrounds of experimenter and subject influenced AR and ER effectiveness.