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PROBABILITY LEARNING AS A FUNCTION OF MOMENTARY REINFORCEMENT PROBABILITY 1
Author(s) -
Williams Ben A.
Publication year - 1972
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.1972.17-363
Subject(s) - reinforcement , function (biology) , reinforcement learning , computer science , artificial intelligence , psychology , social psychology , biology , evolutionary biology
Pigeons were trained on a probability learning task where the overall reinforcement probability was 0.50 for each response alternative but where the momentary reinforcement probability differed and depended upon the outcome of the preceding trial. In all cases, the maximum reinforcement occurred with a “win‐stay, lose‐shift” response pattern. When both position and color were relevant cues, the optimal response pattern was learned when the reinforcement probability for repeating the just‐reinforced response was 0.80 but not when the probability was 0.65. When only color was relevant, learning occurred much more slowly, and only for subjects trained on large fixed ratio requirements.