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SHORT‐COMPONENT MULTIPLE SCHEDULES: EFFECTS OF RELATIVE REINFORCEMENT DURATION 1
Author(s) -
Merigan William H.,
Miller Jay S.,
Gollub Lewis R.
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.1975.24-183
Subject(s) - reinforcement , duration (music) , matching (statistics) , alternation (linguistics) , frequency , interval (graph theory) , matching law , exposure duration , statistics , psychology , mathematics , social psychology , combinatorics , toxicology , biology , art , linguistics , philosophy , literature
Pigeons were exposed to multiple variable‐interval 2‐min variable‐interval 2‐min schedules of food presentation in which relative duration of food presentation was manipulated. When components alternated every 5 sec and were scheduled on separate response keys, relative response rates closely matched relative reinforcement duration in three of four pigeons. On the other hand, relative response rates were insensitive to relative reinforcement duration when components scheduled on a single response key alternated every 5 sec, and when components scheduled on separate response keys alternated every 2 min. Thus, both rapid alternation and spatial separation of components were necessary to produce approximate matching of relative responding to relative reinforcement duration. This finding contrasts with previous findings that only rapid component alternation is necessary for matching when relative rate of reinforcement is manipulated.