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CHOICE AND RESPONSE CONTINGENCIES 1
Author(s) -
Moore Jay,
Fantino Edmund
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.1975.23-339
Subject(s) - reinforcement , schedule , generality , aperiodic graph , context (archaeology) , psychology , contingency , response time , computer science , social psychology , mathematics , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , computer graphics (images) , combinatorics , psychotherapist , biology , operating system
Two experiments investigated the extent to which response contingencies influence the choice between two schedules of reinforcement by exposing pigeons to a concurrent‐chains procedure in which reinforcers in one terminal link were response‐independent, and in the other terminal link, response‐dependent. In Experiment 1, the pigeons were indifferent between an aperiodic, response‐independent schedule and an aperiodic, response‐dependent schedule that required a minimum rate of responding. This finding limits the generality of a required‐rate contingency as a determinant of choice, which contingency had been previously demonstrated in a context of periodic reinforcement to evoke preference for an alternate schedule. In Experiment 2, the pigeons preferred a periodic, response‐independent schedule to a periodic, response‐dependent schedule that shared a feature with a required‐rate schedule: there was a requirement to respond early in the interreinforcement interval, when responding produced reinforcement only later. The results of the two experiments suggest the following general interpretation: pigeons prefer a second schedule to the extent that the response contingencies of the first schedule must be satisfied during discriminable periods of nonreinforcement.