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CHOICE FOR PERIODIC SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT 1
Author(s) -
Duncan Barbara,
Fantino Edmund
Publication year - 1970
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.1970.14-73
Subject(s) - reinforcement , aperiodic graph , terminal (telecommunication) , stimulus (psychology) , interval (graph theory) , statistics , schedule , variable (mathematics) , psychology , mathematics , arithmetic , computer science , combinatorics , social psychology , cognitive psychology , telecommunications , mathematical analysis , operating system
Pigeons' responses in the presence of two concurrently available (initial‐link) stimuli produced one of two different (terminal‐link) stimuli according to identical but independent variable‐interval schedules. Responding in the mutually exclusive terminal links was reinforced with food according to fixed‐ratio schedules for six pigeons and according to fixed‐interval schedules for two pigeons. None of the pigeons matched the proportion of (choice) responses in the initial links to the proportion of the rates of reinforcement obtained during the terminal links. Instead, as the values of each of the terminal‐link schedules were increased by a constant amount, the choice proportions for the stimulus associated with the smaller of the two values increased, even though the relative rates of reinforcement during the terminal links decreased. These results are incompatible with those from previous studies with aperiodic (variable‐interval or variable‐ratio) schedules. The present results do suggest, however, that in transforming aperiodic schedules into their periodic equivalents, it may be necessary to consider the size of the smallest interreinforcement interval comprising the terminal‐link schedules.