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CONCURRENT PERFORMANCES: STIMULUS‐CONTROL GRADIENTS DURING SCHEDULES OF SIGNALLED AND UNSIGNALLED CONCURRENT REINFORCEMENT 1
Author(s) -
Catania A. Charles,
Silverman Philip J.,
Stubbs D. Alan
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.1974.21-99
Subject(s) - reinforcement , stimulus control , stimulus (psychology) , pecking order , psychology , discrimination learning , audiology , communication , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , social psychology , biology , ecology , medicine , nicotine
On one key, pigeons' pecks were reinforced according to a variable‐interval schedule in the presence of vertical lines, and were not reinforced in the presence of oblique lines. On a second key, pecks were reinforced according to a variable‐interval schedule in the presence of blue, according to a signalled variable‐interval schedule in the presence of red, and were not reinforced in the presence of white. Subsequently, during extinction, stimulus‐control gradients were obtained by presenting eight different line orientations on the first key concurrent with each of the three colors on the second key. On the first key, line‐orientation gradients tended to be lower, narrower, and less shifted in peak or area when the second‐key stimulus was blue or red, the stimuli respectively correlated with unsignalled and signalled reinforcement, than when it was white, the stimulus correlated with extinction. Thus, the effect on first‐key line‐orientation gradients depended on second‐key stimuli correlated with concurrent reinforcement, whether or not these stimuli were also correlated with concurrent responding. As a function of first‐key line orientation, an inverted gradient was obtained on the second key during blue; during both red and white, rates of pecking on the second key were near zero.