摘要:

Temporal patterns of key pecking by pigeons were shaped by a schedule in which the delivery of food was contingent upon a measure of the overall extent to which the temporal pattern of behavior within a 5‐sec trial conformed to a required pattern. This pattern approximated a constant rate of change in the rate of key pecking throughout the 5‐sec trial. In comparison with behavior maintained by a classical fixed‐interval 5‐sec schedule, the new schedule controlled a better approximation to a “scallop” within individual trials and greatly reduced intersubject variability. These results are consistent with the view that the delivery of a reinforcer after a behavioral pattern a few seconds in duration may strengthen the entire pattern as a unit, or operant. The response topography contiguous with reinforcement may be a negligible fraction of the strengthened operant. One implication of this view is that mean response rate for such brief responses as key pecks and lever presses is a byproduct of whatever patterns are strengthened, and generally will not reveal fundamental controlling relationships, whenever a reinforcer is not contiguous with all the behavior on which it is

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-3

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Pigeons were trained to peck on a fixed‐interval schedule of food reinforcement and then exposed to three schedules in which there was either no, or an indirect, relation between pecking and food delivery: (a) a conjunctive schedule in which food was delivered at fixed intervals, providing at least one peck was emitted in the interval; (b) a recycling version of the conjunctive schedule that essentially eliminated occasional peck‐food contiguities (recycling conjunctive); (c) delivery of food at fixed intervals independently of the birds' behavior (fixed time). The rates and patterns of pecking sustained by these procedures depended on interfood interval and relative proximity of pecks to f

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-17

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In a discrete‐trial choice situation, 12 pigeons were trained to discriminate which of two different fixed ratios they had completed. Psychometric functions were obtained at three ratio requirements (i.e., with the larger ratio set at 10, 20, or 30 responses) by gradually reducing the size of the smaller value. Although different response biases developed across subjects, in each case accuracy decreased systematically with ratio difference regardless of absolute ratio requirements. Above‐chance performances were maintained even at relative ratio differences of 10% or less. Estimates of the Weber fraction showed that, in general, discriminability improved with absolute ratio size up to 30 responses, and beyond, when the results of other studies are considered. A similar trend held for rats studied by other investigators in fixed‐ratio “counting” tasks at lower requirements. In terms of a signal‐detection analysis, performance was similar to that reported for other species and dimensions. Taken together, the results suggest that for this somewhat novel dimension the same psychophysical relations hold as are commonly observed for exterocept

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-25

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The effect of food reinforcement schedules on the reinforcement value of drinking water was evaluated. Food‐deprived rats were exposed to concurrent, identical variable‐time schedules of food presentation, the food thus being delivered independently of the rats' behavior. When the relative amount of time spent in a schedule component stabilized, an opportunity to drink water was introduced into one schedule component. The value of the variable‐time schedules was varied from 60 to 90 to 270 sec. The relative amount of time spent in the schedule component associated with drinking water was a decreasing function of food frequency for two animals and remained constant for the third. Drinking rates were direct functions of food frequency, and the amount of water drunk per pellet was an inverse function of food frequency. The reinforcement value of drinking water, according to the Matching Law, was a direct function of the frequency of food presentation. It was concluded that food reinforcement schedules indirectly influence rates of drinking by altering the reinforcement value of drinking water and that certain properties of schedule‐induced drinking can be accounted for in terms of the reinforcement value of drinking water, the rate of drinking, and the frequency of food prese

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-37

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Three human subjects detected unpredictable signals by pressing either of two telegraph keys. The relative frequencies with which detections occurred for the two alternatives were varied. The procedure included a changeover delay and response cost for letting go of a key. All subjects matched the relative time spent holding each key to the relative number of detections for that key, in conformity with the matching law. One subject's performance, which at first deviated from the relation, came into conformity with it when response cost was increased. Another subject's performance approximated matching more closely when the changeover delay was increased. The results confirm and extend the notions that choice consists in time allocation and that all behavior can be measured on the common scale of time.

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-45

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Pigeons were studied in a two‐component multiple schedule. In the first phase of the experiment, key pecks were reinforced on a variable‐interval 2‐min schedule in both components and free food was delivered additionally during one component. When components alternated every 8 sec, all pigeons pecked at a much higher rate during the component with free food than during the other component. At a component duration of 16 min, the reverse was true: all pigeons pecked at a higher rate during the component without free food. In the second phase, the additional food during one component was made contingent on pecking. Responding during the component without the extra food remained essentially unchanged, as expected, since rate of reinforcement remained identical to that in the previous phase. However, rate of responding during the component with the extra food (now contingent on pecking) was elevated, compared to the rate in the first phase, and did not show the marked decline as component duration was incr

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-55

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The initial objective was to determine whether an increase in cooperative responses (minimal cooperation) was also accompanied by an increase in the degree of correspondence in the number of reinforcers of the two subjects (maximal cooperation). Correct matching‐to‐sample responses of seven pairs of male adolescents were reinforced with money. On each trial, a subject could (1) give the matching‐to‐sample problem to his coactor (give or cooperative responses), or (2) take the problem for himself (take responses). The first member of the pair to respond made the choice. Correspondence did increase under this procedure as compared to a baseline where problems were distributed randomly. However, the increased correspondence usually resulted from take responses rather than cooperative give responses. This equitable method of problem distribution, designated as sharing, was characterized by the subjects alternately taking problems. The spacing of daily sessions may have been partly responsible for the high degree of correspondence, because correspondence did not increase within the usual number of sessions when the sessions were massed,i.e., all in one day. Daily sessions require cooperative responses,i.e., each subject has to show up each day for the other to earn money, and this dependency upon the coactor's behavior may facilitate some sharing or cooperation to ensure the coactor's att

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-63

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-80

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Two groups of six rats received discrimination training with two auditory stimuli differing in intensity. During one stimulus, the schedule was variable interval; during the other, it was either variable time or extinction. Both the variable time and extinction schedules resulted in differential rates of responding in the presence of the two stimuli. Extinction resulted in an earlier and more stable difference. Stimulus generalization gradients obtained along the noise‐intensity dimension revealed peak shift with both procedures. In addition, a secondary peak to stimuli in between the two training stimuli occurred with the variable‐time sched

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-81

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The fixed‐ratio requirement was varied in concurrent fixed‐interval fixed‐ratio schedules. Fixed‐interval responding was reinforced by food. In different phases, fixed‐ratio responding was reinforced by food or water. There was a direct relation between the ratio requirement and interval response rates when both responses were reinforced with food, but essentially no relation when the reinforcers were different. The role of reinforcers in concurrent schedules merits detai

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1975.23-87

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY