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REINFORCEMENT OF BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS: SHAPING A SCALLOP 1
Author(s) -
Hawkes Larry,
Shimp Charles P.
Publication year - 1975
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.1975.23-3
Subject(s) - reinforcement , pecking order , operant conditioning , food delivery , schedule , lever , psychology , statistics , behavioral pattern , behavioral analysis , cognitive psychology , computer science , mathematics , social psychology , ecology , biology , physics , software engineering , marketing , quantum mechanics , business , operating system
Temporal patterns of key pecking by pigeons were shaped by a schedule in which the delivery of food was contingent upon a measure of the overall extent to which the temporal pattern of behavior within a 5‐sec trial conformed to a required pattern. This pattern approximated a constant rate of change in the rate of key pecking throughout the 5‐sec trial. In comparison with behavior maintained by a classical fixed‐interval 5‐sec schedule, the new schedule controlled a better approximation to a “scallop” within individual trials and greatly reduced intersubject variability. These results are consistent with the view that the delivery of a reinforcer after a behavioral pattern a few seconds in duration may strengthen the entire pattern as a unit, or operant. The response topography contiguous with reinforcement may be a negligible fraction of the strengthened operant. One implication of this view is that mean response rate for such brief responses as key pecks and lever presses is a byproduct of whatever patterns are strengthened, and generally will not reveal fundamental controlling relationships, whenever a reinforcer is not contiguous with all the behavior on which it is contingent.