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THE EFFECT OF CONTINGENCY UPON THE APPETITIVE CONDITIONING OF FREE‐OPERANT BEHAVIOR
Author(s) -
Hammond Lynn J.
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.1980.34-297
Subject(s) - reinforcement , contingency , operant conditioning , extinction (optical mineralogy) , psychology , contingency management , contiguity , lever , independence (probability theory) , conditioning , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , statistics , social psychology , computer science , mathematics , psychiatry , intervention (counseling) , operating system , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
The problem of maintaining independence between response rates and reinforcement probabilities when determining the effect of varying the response‐reinforcement contingency upon free‐operant behavior was solved by programming local reinforcement probabilities for response and no response on a second‐by‐second basis. Fifty‐seven rats were trained to lever‐press on schedules of water reinforcement involving different values of contingency. All rats were first trained on a high positive contingency and then shifted to less positive, zero, or negative contingencies. Under these conditions, rate of lever‐pressing declined appropriately when the contingency between response and reinforcement decreased or was made negative. The decline in rate produced by a zero contingency cannot be attributed to extinction, since the probability of reinforcement given the occurrence of a response was the same as for the positive contingency from which the shift to zero was made. That is, there was no change in the opportunity for response‐reinforcement contiguity. It was concluded that the technique of programming local reinforcement probabilities offers promise for more critical examinations of the effects of contingency upon free‐operant behavior.