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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESPONSE RATE AND REINFORCEMENT FREQUENCY IN VARIABLE‐INTERVAL SCHEDULES: THE EFFECT OF THE CONCENTRATION OF SUCROSE REINFORCEMENT
Author(s) -
Bradshaw C. M.,
Szabadi E.,
Bevan P.
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.1978.29-447
Subject(s) - reinforcement , sucrose , distilled water , range (aeronautics) , statistics , zoology , mathematics , chemistry , psychology , biology , social psychology , materials science , chromatography , biochemistry , composite material
Four rats were exposed to variable‐interval schedules specifying a range of different reinforcement frequencies, using sucrose of two different concentrations and distilled water as the reinforcer. With sucrose, the rates of responding of all four rats were increasing negatively accelerated functions of reinforcement frequency, the data conforming closely to Herrnstein's equation; this was also true of the data from three of the four rats when distilled water was used as the reinforcer. The values of both constants in Herrnstein's equation were related to the sucrose concentration: the asymptotic response rate decreased, and the reinforcement frequency corresponding to the half‐maximal response rate increased, with decreasing sucrose concentration.