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THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT COMPONENT RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS IN MULTIPLE AND CONCURRENT SCHEDULES
Author(s) -
Davison Mike,
Ferguson Alan
Publication year - 1978
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.1978.29-283
Subject(s) - lever , matching law , reinforcement , schedule , pecking order , key (lock) , matching (statistics) , sensitivity (control systems) , computer science , component (thermodynamics) , psychology , statistics , mathematics , social psychology , engineering , electronic engineering , mechanical engineering , physics , thermodynamics , computer security , evolutionary biology , biology , operating system
Six pigeons were trained on multiple and concurrent schedules. The reinforcement rates were varied systematically (a) when lever pressing was required in one component and key pecking in the successive component; (b) when lever pressing was required in both multiple components; (c) when key pecking was required in both multiple components; and (d) when key pecking was required on one schedule and lever pressing was required on the concurrently‐available schedule. Only the absolute level of responding was changed by different response requirements. Analyzed by the generalized matching law, performance under different response requirements resulted in a bias toward key pecking, and the measured response bias was the same in multiple and concurrent schedule arrangements. The bias in time measures obtained from concurrent schedule performance was reliably smaller than the obtained response biases. The sensitivity to reinforcement‐rate changes was ordered: concurrent key‐lever; multiple key‐key; multiple lever‐key; and, the least sensitive, multiple lever‐lever. The results confirm that requirements of different topographical responses can be handled by the generalized matching law mainly in the bias parameter, but problems for this type of analysis may be caused by the changing sensitivity to reinforcement in multiple schedule performance as response requirements are changed.