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EFFECTS OF RESPONSE RATE, REINFORCEMENT FREQUENCY, AND THE DURATION OF A STIMULUS PRECEDING RESPONSE‐INDEPENDENT FOOD 1
Author(s) -
Smith James B.
Publication year - 1974
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.1974.21-215
Subject(s) - reinforcement , stimulus (psychology) , pecking order , audiology , stimulus control , psychology , medicine , biology , neuroscience , social psychology , cognitive psychology , ecology , nicotine
Food‐reinforced key pecking in the pigeon was maintained under a four‐component multiple schedule. In two components, responding was maintained at high rates under a random‐ratio schedule. In the other two components, responding was maintained at low rates under a schedule that specified a minimum interresponse time. For both high and low response rates, one of the schedule components was associated with a high reinforcement frequency and the other components with a lower reinforcement frequency. During performance under these schedules, a stimulus terminated by access to response‐independent food was periodically presented. The duration of this pre‐food stimulus was 5, 30, 60, or 120 sec. Changes in rate of key pecking during the pre‐food stimulus were systematically related to baseline response rate and the duration of the stimulus. Both high and low response rates were increased during the 5‐sec stimulus. At longer stimulus durations, low response rates were unaffected and high response rates were decreased during the stimulus. For two of three pigeons, high response rates maintained under a lower frequency of reinforcement tended to be decreased more than high response rates maintained under a higher reinforcement frequency. In general, the magnitude of decrease in high response rates was inversely related to the duration of the pre‐food stimulus.