摘要:

Humans were presented with a task that required moving a light through a matrix. Button presses could produce light movements according to a multiple fixed‐ratio 18/differential‐reinforcement‐of‐low‐rate 6‐s schedule, with components alternating every 2 min. Moving the light through the maze earned points worth chances on money prizes. In Experiment 1 four conditions were assessed through between‐subject comparisons: minimal instructions, instructions to press rapidly, instructions to press slowly, and instructions that sometimes rapid responding would work while at other times a slow rate would work best. Subjects responded in three successive sessions of 32 min each. The results suggested that instructions affected the nature of the contact made with the programmed consequences and thus subsequent performance. In some cases, responding seemed to result from added contingencies introduced by stating rules. In Experiment 2 the relative contribution of these two effects was assessed by presenting and then withdrawing two lights that had been paired with two specific instructions: “Go Fast” or “Go Slow.” There were three conditions. In one condition, only the Go Fast light was on; in a second, only the Go Slow light was on; and in a third, the lights alternated each minute. In each condition, half the subjects had all instruction lights turned off after the first session. The results once again showed an effect of instructions on contact with the programmed consequences. However, responding sometimes continued in a manner consistent with added contingencies for rule‐following even when the programmed consequences had been contacted and would have controlled a different type of responding in the absence of instructions. The relevance of added contingencies for rule‐following in determining the effects of explicitly programmed c

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-237

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In order to investigate the effects of separate exposures to single schedules, of unique schedule‐correlated stimuli, and of independency‐informing instructions upon choice under concurrent variable‐interval schedules, 28 human subjects were divided into eight groups. Each subject was exposed to a baseline procedure, an experimental procedure, and a return to the baseline procedure. Different combinations of these three manipulations were applied to the different groups only during the experimental phase (except for the independency‐informing instructions, which were given to half of the groups at the start of training). For the group of subjects exposed to the combination of all three manipulations, the logarithms of the ratios of response frequencies tended to be linearly related to the logarithms of the ratios of reinforcement frequencies during the experimental phase. These orderly effects were not obtained with subjects in the other groups. The results suggest that human choice was well described by the generalized matching law when the three manipulations were simultaneously in effect, and that unreported differences in the use of these three procedural variables might partly account for contradictions between results in previous studies of human concurrent perf

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-257

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Four pigeons were trained on a multiple variable‐interval 30‐s extinction schedule with various pairs of spoken English words presented as the discriminative stimuli. The birds typically produced discrimination indices of 70% to 90% accuracy. Discrimination accuracy was improved by shortening the interval between auditory stimulus presentations, and by increasing the number of syllables in the wo

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-269

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Pigeons could produce food by pecking exactly four times on each of two keys, in any order. In the first experiment, these response sequences were reinforced on a series of multiple schedules of variable‐interval reinforcement. In the second experiment, these response sequences were reinforced on a series of concurrent schedules of reinforcement. In both experiments, highly stereotyped response sequences developed. If these response sequences were treated as individual responses, the resulting data conformed to what is typically reported in studies of multiple and concurrent schedules involving individual responses. For example, behavioral contrast was observed with the multiple schedules, and matching was observed with the concurrent schedules. However, schedule manipulation had no effect on within‐sequence characteristics of responses like accuracy, stereotypy, or rate. These data constitute further evidence that response sequences can become functional behavioral un

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-283

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

With a customary arrangement of three horizontally aligned stimulus/response keys, two rhesus monkeys learned conditional hue and line discriminations—an “identity‐matching” procedure. First, sample stimuli were always presented on the center key, and comparison stimuli were presented on the two side keys. Next, the sample was allowed to appear on any one of the three keys, with the comparisons on the remaining two. The change from fixed to variable sample and comparison locations caused the horizontal and vertical lines to lose control over the animals' responses; the conditional line discrimination deteriorated. This was not true for the red and green hues; the conditional hue discrimination remained intact. Accurate description of controlling stimuli in a matching‐to‐sample procedure may therefore require that their spatial location b

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-297

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In a discrete‐trial procedure, pigeons could choose between 2‐s and 6‐s access to grain by making a single key peck. In Phase 1, the pigeons obtained both reinforcers by responding on fixed‐ratio schedules. In Phase 2, they received both reinforcers after simple delays, arranged by fixed‐time schedules, during which no responses were required. In Phase 3, the 2‐s reinforcer was available through a fixed‐time schedule and the 6‐s reinforcer was available through a fixed‐ratio schedule. In all conditions, the size of the delay or ratio leading to the 6‐s reinforcer was systematically increased or decreased several times each session, permitting estimation of an “indifference point,” the schedule size at which a subject chose each alternative equally often. By varying the size of the schedule for the 2‐s reinforcer across conditions, several such indifference points were obtained from both fixed‐time conditions and fixed‐ratio conditions. The resulting “indifference curves” from fixed‐time conditions and from fixed‐ratio conditions were similar in shape, and they suggested that a hyperbolic equation describes the relation between ratio size and reinforcement value as well as the relation between reinforcer delay and its reinforcement value. The results from Phase 3 showed that subjects chose fixed‐time schedules over fixed‐ratio schedules that generated the same average times be

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-305

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Three experiments describe the effects of manipulating the frequency of response‐reinforcer contiguity in a recycling conjunctive schedule. The schedule arranged that a reinforcer was delivered after 30 s provided at least one response had occurred; otherwise the next cycle started immediately. In Experiment 1, this schedule produced the typical pause‐respond‐pause pattern, with most responses at mid‐interval; and, when a limited number of contiguities between responses and food delivery were added, the pattern became more like the monotonic scallop seen on fixed‐interval schedules. In Experiment 2, the schedule was initially presented with an additional contingency that allowed contiguity on every trial. Fixed‐interval‐like behavior occurred and tended to persist as contiguities were gradually eliminated. In Experiment 3, the recycling conjunctive schedule alternated with a condition in which a large number of contiguities occurred. The pause‐respond‐pause pattern and fixed‐interval‐like performance occurred with few or many contiguities, respectively. The results of all three experiments illustrate how contiguity interacts with a small number of other variables to determine performance on interval schedules and illuminate previous findings with fixed‐interval a

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-317

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Pigeons were trained on choice procedures in which responses on each of two keys were reinforced probabilistically, but only after a schedule requirement had been met. Under one arrangement, a fixed‐interval choice procedure was used in which responses were not reinforced until the interval was over; then a response on one key would be reinforced, with the effective key changing irregularly from interval to interval. Under a second, fixed‐ratio choice procedure, responses on either key counted towards completion of the ratio and then, once the ratio had been completed, a response on the probabilistically selected key would produce food. In one experiment, the schedule requirements were varied for both fixed‐interval and fixed‐ratio schedules. In the second experiment, relative reinforcement rate was varied. And in a third experiment, the duration of an intertrial interval separating choices was varied. The results for 11 pigeons across all three experiments indicate that there were often large deviations between relative response rates and relative reinforcement rates. Overall performance measures were characterized by a great deal of variability across conditions. More detailed measures of choice across the schedule requirement were also quite variable across conditions. In spite of this variability, performance was consistent across conditions in its efficiency of producing food. The absence of matching of behavior allocation to reinforcement rate indicates an important difference between the present procedures and other choice procedures; that difference raises questions about the specific conditions that lead to matching as an

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-333

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-351

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY