AI Article Synopsis
- Random-interval reinforcement was studied using pigeons, analyzing how the timing and sequence of key pecks influenced the rate at which they pecked.
- Delays between first-key pecks and reinforcers typically reduced pecking rates, regardless of whether the delays were measured by time or the number of second-key pecks.
- The findings indicate that reinforcement is influenced more by the time elapsed since a response rather than the number of responses, suggesting that prior responses can maintain unwanted behaviors if delays are not managed effectively.
Article Abstract
Random-interval reinforcement was arranged for a sequence of pigeon first-key pecks followed by second-key pecks. First-key pecks, separated from reinforcers by delays that included number of second-key pecks and time, decreased in rate as delays increased. Delay functions, or gradients, were obtained in one experiment with reinforced sequences consisting of M first-key pecks followed by N second-key pecks (M + N = 16), in a second where required first-key pecks were held constant (M = 8), and in a third where minimum delay between most recent first-key pecks and reinforcers varied. In each, gradients were equally well fitted by exponential, hyperbolic and logarithmic functions. Performances were insensitive to reinforcer duration and functions were consistent across varied random-interval values. In one more experiment, time and number delays were independently varied using differential reinforcement of rate of second-key pecks. Delay gradients depended primarily on time rather than on number of second-key pecks. Thus, reinforcers have effects based on earlier responses, not just the ones that produced them, with the contribution of each response weighted by the time separating it from the reinforcer rather than by intervening behavior. Situations where unwanted responses (e.g., errors) often precede reinforced corrects can maintain them unless designed to avoid such effects of delay.
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Article Synopsis
- Random-interval reinforcement was studied using pigeons, analyzing how the timing and sequence of key pecks influenced the rate at which they pecked.
- Delays between first-key pecks and reinforcers typically reduced pecking rates, regardless of whether the delays were measured by time or the number of second-key pecks.
- The findings indicate that reinforcement is influenced more by the time elapsed since a response rather than the number of responses, suggesting that prior responses can maintain unwanted behaviors if delays are not managed effectively.
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Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
The schedule of reinforcement under which behavior is maintained is an important contributor to whether tolerance to the behavioral effects of cocaine develops. Schedule parameter value (for example, fixed-ratio size) has been shown to affect the development of tolerance under some schedule types but not others, but the specific procedural variables causing this effect remain to be identified. To date, schedule-parameter-related tolerance has developed when a longer pause after reinforcement does not lead to a shorter delay between the response that ends the pause and reinforcement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResurgence of temporal patterns of responding.
J Exp Anal Behav
May 2011
Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6040, USA.
The resurgence of temporal patterns of key pecking by pigeons was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, positively accelerated and linear patterns of responding were established on one key under a discrete-trial multiple fixed-interval variable-interval schedule. Subsequently, only responses on a second key produced reinforcers according to a variable-interval schedule.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEffects of signaled versus unsignaled delay of reinforcement on choice.
J Exp Anal Behav
March 2001
Department of Psychology, Western Maryland College, Westminster 21157-4390, USA.
Pigeons chose between 5-s and 15-s delay-of-reinforcement alternatives. The first key peck to satisfy the choice schedule began a delay timer, and food was delivered at the end of the interval. Key pecks during the delay interval were measured, but had no scheduled effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehavioral momentum theory relates resistance to change of responding in a multiple-schedule component to the total reinforcement obtained in that component, regardless of how the reinforcers are produced. Four pigeons responded in a series of multiple-schedule conditions in which a variable-interval 40-s schedule arranged reinforcers for pecking in one component and a variable-interval 360-s schedule arranged them in the other. In addition, responses on a second key were reinforced according to variable-interval schedules that were equal in the two components.
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