Premium
TEMPORAL CONTROL ON PERIODIC SCHEDULES: SIGNAL PROPERTIES OF REINFORCEMENT AND BLACKOUT 1
Author(s) -
Starr Bettie C.,
Staddon J. E. R.
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.1974.22-535
Subject(s) - reinforcement , blackout , pecking order , operant conditioning , reinforcement learning , psychology , statistics , computer science , artificial intelligence , mathematics , social psychology , power (physics) , physics , electric power system , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biology
Pigeons were exposed to periodic food‐reinforcement schedules in which intervals ended with equal probability in either reinforcement or brief blackout. The effects on the pattern of key pecking of sequential probability of reinforcement, interval duration, and time to reinforcement opportunity were investigated in three experiments. The major results were: (1) at short absolute interval durations, time to reinforcement opportunity determined both postreinforcement and postblackout pause (time to first key peck within an interval); (2) at long intervals, postblackout pause was consistently shorter than postreinforcement pause, even if both events signalled the same time to the next reinforcement opportunity (omission effect); (3) when reinforcement and blackout signalled different times to the next reinforcement opportunity, within the same experiment, there was some evidence for interactions analogous to behavioral contrast.