摘要:

Rats obtained all of their water by licking a metal tube during a series of daily 1‐hour sessions. When the tube was freely available throughout, each rat showed the classic temporal pattern of unconstrained drinking: As the session progressed, drinking bouts generally grew shorter and pauses grew longer. In subsequent sessions the tube was opened and closed independently of the rat's behavior, on a schedule that gave the rat a chance to duplicate the exact inverse of its unconstrained baseline pattern. Thus, as the inversion session progressed, the opportunities to drink generally grew longer and the enforced pauses grew shorter. When the rats were forced away from their unconstrained patterns of drinking and pausing, their total time spent drinking consistently fell short of previous values, but total licks and volumetric intake remained at previous levels. The same results occurred under an identity schedule, a series of openings and closings that duplicated the unconstrained pattern of drinking and pausing. The results have implications for theories that assume that instrumental performance under schedule constraint derives from the animal's defense of a measured set‐po

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-5

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Field data concerning the time budgets and foraging success of pied wagtails (Motacilla alba yarrelli, Gould) are reanalyzed. It is found that the data are well described by the generalized matching law, with a marked bias towards spending time on the territory. In this case matching is not the result of maximizing reward rate, but it remains possible that it results from an allocation of time that maximizes survival.

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-15

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The possible role of “effort” in the accuracy of pigeons' performance on a delayed matching‐to‐sample procedure was investigated by examining the effects of response requirements that accompanied a trial‐initiating stimulus and that accompanied a sample stimulus. In the first experiment, the effect of varying the size of a fixed‐ratio requirement for responses during an initiating stimulus was compared to that of varying a similar requirement for responses during the sample stimulus. Accuracy increased reliably with increases in the ratio scheduled during the sample stimulus, but was not significantly affected by increases in the ratio scheduled on the key during the initiating stimulus. In another phase of Experiment 1, sample duration was held constant while the ratio requirement was varied during the initiating stimulus. Again, accuracy of matching to sample was not significantly affected by the size of the ratio scheduled during the initiating stimulus. Experiment 2 provided a systematic replication of these results in another group of pigeons and included a more detailed analysis of responding. These results support the view that increases in sample‐response requirement facilitate accuracy of delayed matching by increasing the durations of exposure to the sample stimuli, and do not support a role of effort in the sample‐response effect. In Experiment 3, the facilitative effect of responses on the sample but not of those on the initiating stimulus was replicated using a simultaneous matching‐to‐sample procedure. This finding provides further evidence against an interpretation of response‐requirement effects that appeals to effort; the finding also suggests that sample exposure might affect initial discrimination of the sample rather than r

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-19

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Five pigeons were trained in a concurrent‐chain procedure. In the initial links, equal nonindependent variable‐interval schedules were available concurrently on two keys. Completing the schedule on either key led to exclusive presentation of one of two further variable‐interval schedules for a fixed period of time. During these terminal links, as many reinforcers as were scheduled could be obtained. If the response producing this terminal link occurred on one key, differential stimuli signaled which variable‐interval schedule had been produced. If the response producing the terminal link occurred on the other key, no such differential stimuli were available. Once the fixed period of time elapsed, the initial links were reinstated. In Experiment 1, the period of time for which the terminal links were available was always 10 s and the absolute duration of the initial links was varied. Subjects preferred the alternative leading to the multiple schedule when the initial‐link duration was short, but preferred the alternative leading to the mixed schedule when the initial‐link durations were longer. In Experiment 2, both the initial‐link duration and the duration of the terminal links were varied. The effect of initial‐link duration was identical to that in Experiment 1 and there was no systematic effect of varying the termina

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-33

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Pigeons were trained on a three‐component multiple schedule in which the rates of reinforcement in the various components were systematically varied. Response rates were described by an equation that posits that the response‐strengthening effects of reinforcement are inversely related to the context of reinforcement in which it occurs, and that the context is calculated as the weighted average of the various sources of reinforcement in the situation. The quality of fits was comparable to that found with previous quantitative analyses of concurrent schedules, especially for relative response rates, with over 90% of the variance accounted for in every case. As with previous research, reinforcements in the component that was to follow received greater weights in determining the context than did reinforcements in the preceding compon

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-47

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Herrnstein's matching theory requires the parameter,k, which appears in the single‐alternative form of the matching equation, to remain invariant with respect to changes in reinforcement parameters like magnitude or immediacy. Recent experiments have disconfirmed matching theory by showing that the invariant‐krequirement does not hold. However, the theory can be asserted in a purely algebraic form that does not require an invariantkand that is not disconfirmed by the recent findings. In addition, both the original and the purely algebraic versions of matching theory can be asserted in forms that allow for commonly observed deviations from matching (bias, undermatching, and overmatching). The recent finding of a variablekdoes not disconfirm these versions of matching theory either. As a consequence, matching remains a viable theory of behavior, the strength of which lies in its general conceptualization of all behavior as choice, and in its unified mathematical treatment of single‐ and multialternative environ

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-63

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Studies that have superimposed response‐independent reinforcement (or reinforcers scheduled by contingencies placed on the absence of responding) upon conventional response‐dependent schedules are reviewed. In general, providing alternative sources of reinforcement reduced response rates below the levels observed when alternative reinforcement was absent. However, response‐rate elevation was sometimes found, particularly when rates of superimposed response‐independent reinforcement were low. Superimposition of schedules providing reinforcers contingent on the absence of responding usually produced more severe response‐rate decrements than superimposition of response‐independent reinforcement. A variant of Herrnstein's equation, which assumes that some of the alternative reinforcers function as if they were delivered by baseline response‐dependent source of reinforcement, is in qualitative agreement with the overall body of results obtained, and can predict both increases and decreases in response rate as resulting from superimpose

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-75

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The literature was examined to determine how well the generalized matching law (Baum, 1974) describes multiple‐schedule responding. In general, it describes the data well, accounting for a median of 91% of the variance. The median size of the undermatching parameter was 0.46; the median bias parameter was 1.00. The size of the undermatching parameter, and the proportion of the variance accounted for by the equation, varied inversely with the number of schedules conducted, with the number of sessions conducted per schedule, and with the time within a component. The undermatching parameter also varied with the operanda used to produce reinforcers and with the reinforcer used. The undermatching parameter did not vary consistently with component duration or with several other variables. Bias was greater when fewer rather than more schedules were conducted, when two rather than one operanda were used, and when White Carneaux rather than homing pigeons served as subjects. These results imply that the generalized matching law may describe both concurrent and multiple‐schedule responding, but that the same variables do not always influence the bias and undermatching parameters in the same way for the two types of schedu

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-83

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Four rats pressed levers and received food pellets under fixed‐interval reinforcement schedules of 20, 60, and 180 seconds. The number of responses in each interval was recorded. From these data, the probability of reinforcement was determined as a function of response count. These functions were generally increasing. This finding is consistent with previous suggestions that increasing response rates within fixed intervals may be a function of response count in addition to or instead of elapsed or remaining tim

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-103

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1986.45-107

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY