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MATCHING TO RELATIVE REINFORCEMENT FREQUENCY IN MULTIPLE SCHEDULES WITH A SHORT COMPONENT DURATION 1
Author(s) -
Shimp Charles P.,
Wheatley Kimbal L.
Publication year - 1971
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.1971.15-205
Subject(s) - reinforcement , component (thermodynamics) , frequency , duration (music) , relative value , statistics , mathematics , psychology , acoustics , physics , social psychology , finance , economics , thermodynamics
Three pigeons performed on two‐component multiple variable‐interval variable‐interval schedules of reinforcement. There were two independent variables: component duration and the relative frequency of reinforcement in a component. The component duration, which was always the same in both components, was varied over experimental conditions from 2 to 180 sec. Over these conditions, the relative frequency of reinforcement in a component was either 0.2 or 0.8 (±0.03). As the component duration was shortened, the relative frequency of responding in a component approached a value equal to the relative frequency of reinforcement in that component. When the relative frequency of reinforcement was varied over conditions in which the component duration was fixed at 5 sec, the relative frequency of responding in a component closely approximated the relative frequency of reinforcement in that component. That is, the familiar matching relationship, obtained previously only with concurrent schedules, was obtained in multiple schedules with a short component duration.