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FOOD DELIVERIES DURING THE PAUSE ON FIXED‐INTERVAL SCHEDULES 1
Author(s) -
Shull Richard L.,
Guilkey Marilyn
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.1976.26-415
Subject(s) - reinforcement , food delivery , interval (graph theory) , schedule , duration (music) , statistics , computer science , mathematics , zoology , psychology , biology , social psychology , combinatorics , physics , marketing , business , operating system , acoustics
Pigeons were trained on fixed‐interval schedules of food delivery. In Experiments I and II, the fixed interval was initiated by the previous fixed‐interval reinforcer; in Experiment III, the fixed interval was initiated by the first key peck following the preceding fixed‐interval reinforcer (a chain fixed‐ratio one, fixed‐interval schedule). During the postreinforcement pause, variable‐time schedules delivered food independent of any specific response. Rate of food delivery during the pause had only small effects on pause duration in Experiments I and II. In Experiment III, however, pause duration increased systematically with the rate of food delivery during the pause. These data suggest that the momentary proximity to reinforcement delivered via the fixed‐interval schedule exerts potent control over pause termination. Additional analysis revealed that pause termination was unaffected by the intermittent delivery of food during the pause. Such data suggest that the temporal control by fixed‐interval schedules is highly resistant to interference.