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SUCCESSIVE DISCRIMINATION TRAINING WITH EQUATED REINFORCEMENT FREQUENCIES: FAILURE TO OBTAIN BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST 1
Author(s) -
Boakes R. A.,
Halliday M. S.,
Mole J. S.
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.1976.26-65
Subject(s) - reinforcement , schedule , contrast (vision) , psychology , extinction (optical mineralogy) , audiology , statistics , component (thermodynamics) , interval (graph theory) , social psychology , developmental psychology , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science , combinatorics , medicine , optics , physics , thermodynamics , operating system
In two experiments, pigeons were trained on two‐component multiple schedules in which responding in one component (S 1 ) was always maintained by a variable‐interval schedule. In Experiment I, low response rates were reinforced in the second (S 2 ) component for six master subjects. This schedule was adjusted to equate reinforcement frequencies in the two components. These subjects were compared to yoked partners, for which reinforcement in the S 2 component was made available on a variable‐interval schedule whose value was determined by the master subjects. A similar procedure was used in Experiment II, where the S 2 schedule for master subjects made reinforcers contingent on the absence of responding. No evidence was found in either experiment for a behavioral contrast effect in the S 1 component attributable to response reduction in the S 2 component. A reliable contrast effect was obtained from a group of pigeons given extinction conditions in the S 2 component, which was compared to a group maintained throughout on a multiple variable‐interval schedule. The results suggest that previous indications of behavioral contrast in similar situations were probably caused by uneven reinforcement distributions or reflect uncontrolled fluctuations in response rates.