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THE ROLE OF CONTINGENCIES AND “PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIORAL VARIATION” IN PIGEONS' PECKING
Author(s) -
Fenner Douglas
Publication year - 1980
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.1980.34-1
Subject(s) - reinforcement , pecking order , schedule , psychology , stimulus (psychology) , statistics , social psychology , cognitive psychology , computer science , mathematics , ecology , biology , operating system
Staddon and Simmelhag's proposal that behavior is produced by “principles of behavioral variation” instead of contingencies of reinforcement was tested in two experiments. In the first experiment pigeons were exposed to either a fixed‐interval schedule of response‐contingent reinforcement, an autoshaping schedule of stimulus‐contingent reinforcement, or a fixed‐time schedule of noncontingent reinforcement. Pigeons exposed to contingent reinforcement came to peck more rapidly than those exposed to noncontingent reinforcement. Staddon and Simmelhag's “principles of behavioral variation” included the proposal that patterns (interim and terminal) were a function of momentary probability of reinforcement. In the second experiment pigeons were exposed to either a fixed‐time or a random‐time schedule of noncontingent reinforcement. Pecking showed a constant frequency of occurrence over postfood time on the random‐time schedule. Most behavior showed patterns on the fixed‐time schedule that differed in overall shape (i.e., interim versus terminal) from those shown on the random‐time schedule. It was concluded that both the momentary probability of reinforcement and postfood time can affect patterning.