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TIME ALLOCATION AND RESPONSE RATE 1
Author(s) -
Shimp Charles P.
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.1974.21-491
Subject(s) - reinforcement , pecking order , time allocation , component (thermodynamics) , function (biology) , asymptote , monotonic function , statistics , mathematics , psychology , biology , social psychology , mathematical analysis , physics , geometry , evolutionary biology , thermodynamics , social science , sociology
Food reinforcement for key pecking by three pigeons was arranged by a variable‐interval schedule and a device that assigned each reinforcement to one of 10 component response rates corresponding to 10 classes of equally reinforced interresponse times ranging from 1.0 to 6.0 sec in 0.5‐sec classes. The overall number of reinforcements per hour was varied from one to more than 60. Overall response rate was a monotonically increasing, negatively accelerated function of the overall number of reinforcements per hour. This function was decomposed into two time‐allocation functions: (1) the time allocated to all of the reinforced component response rates as a function of the total reinforcement rate, and, (2) the time allocated to a particular reinforced component response rate as a function of the reinforcement rate for that component. Asymptotic response rate was predicted by combining the asymptotes of the two separate time‐allocation functions: virtually all of the time was spent responding, and the percentage of the time spent responding that was allocated to a particular reinforced component response rate roughly equalled the relative reinforcements per hour for that component.