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EFFECTS OF A CONCURRENT TASK ON FIXED‐INTERVAL RESPONDING IN HUMANS 1
Author(s) -
Laties Victor G.,
Weiss Bernard
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1963.6-431
Subject(s) - reinforcement , reset (finance) , subtraction , pointer (user interface) , interval (graph theory) , computer science , task (project management) , polling , flashing , simulation , communication , arithmetic , psychology , artificial intelligence , mathematics , social psychology , engineering , chemistry , systems engineering , combinatorics , financial economics , economics , operating system
Subjects pressed a telegraph key to illuminate a meter dial on which pointer deflections appeared at fixed intervals. Upon detecting a deflection they were required to press another key to reset the pointer to zero. This detecting and resetting operation reinforced the behavior of pressing the light‐flashing key ( i.e ., the observing responses). The usual pattern of responding on the light‐flashing key was a long pause following the reinforcement and an abrupt transition to a steady response rate toward the end of the interval. When the subjects were required to perform a concurrent subtraction task, the pattern of responding changed in varying degrees, ranging from complete loss of typical fixed‐interval behavior to a slight shortening of the post‐reinforcement pause. These effects were attributed to the disruption of the self‐produced verbal chains (counting or reciting) that ordinarily govern human behavior on this schedule.