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DISCRIMINATIVE PROPERTIES OF BRIEFLY PRESENTED STIMULI
Author(s) -
Cohen Steven L.,
Stubbs D. Alan
Publication year - 1976
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.1976.25-15
Subject(s) - stimulus (psychology) , stimulus control , neutral stimulus , reinforcement , audiology , psychology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , social psychology , medicine , nicotine
In Experiment I, pigeons' responses produced food according to a fixed‐interval schedule while responses on the key also produced brief stimuli according to a variable‐interval schedule. Each brief stimulus reset the fixed interval. Thus, a brief stimulus occurred irregularly but a fixed minimum time separated the occurrence of food from a brief stimulus. Pauses followed brief stimuli and were followed by an accelerated response rate until another brief stimulus or food occurred. In Experiment II, four control procedures were examined. (1) Brief‐stimulus presentations were omitted, producing a loss of response patterning. (2) A second‐order schedule was studied with fixed‐interval components. This schedule produced patterning following brief stimuli similar in kind and degree to that found in Experiment I. (3) A conjoint schedule was arranged in which food was no longer separated from the stimulus by a fixed time; pauses following the stimulus no longer resulted. (4) A brief food reinforcer replaced the brief visual stimulus, resulting in a constant response rate with no pausing following the brief food stimulus. The results suggest that the brief‐stimulus effects were due to discriminative functions produced by the fixed temporal relation separating the stimulus from food.