Temporal control of behaviour in children with differential reinforcement of low rates schedule: the role of age, language and cognitive functioning on temporal regulation

• Temporal regulation in children is better with small durations (DRL 5 s).
• Age is positively correlated to performance in children with DRL 5 s schedule.
• Language and IQ are not correlated to performance in DRL.
• The efficiency ratio is accurate in DRL 20 s, but IRTs near the DRL value are rare.

Research on temporal regulation in children has been prolific until early 1990s and has received a very limited attention since then. However, the studies focussed mainly on very short durations, and many questions raised at that time remain unanswered (Clément et al., 2007). The scope of this study was to evaluate temporal control in children with differential reinforcement of low-rates (DRL) schedule. Objectives were (a) to evaluate the performance in DRL with two distinct durations; (b) to evaluate the relationship between performance, IQ and language; and (c) to observe children’s response patterns across the sessions. Eleven children aged from 2.6 to 7 years old were exposed to a DRL 5 s and a DRL 20 s schedule. No significant correlation was observed between language, IQ and the performance in DRL. In DRL 5 s, seven children adjusted their responses and six in DRL 20 s. Age was positively correlated to performance in DRL 5 s, while the response patterns in DRL 20 s were hardly predictable. In both conditions, children aged from 4.6 years old showed a lower proportion of bursting responses, a lower rate of response, a larger proportion of reinforced responses and a higher optimisation coefficient.