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CONTRAST AND UNDERMATCHING AS A FUNCTION OF REINFORCER DURATION AND QUALITY DURING MULTIPLE SCHEDULES
Author(s) -
Ettinger R. H.,
McSweeney Frances K.,
Norman Wayne D.
Publication year - 1981
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.1981.35-271
Subject(s) - reinforcement , psychology , duration (music) , contrast (vision) , statistics , component (thermodynamics) , interval (graph theory) , developmental psychology , social psychology , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science , combinatorics , art , physics , literature , thermodynamics
Eight pigeons pecked keys under multiple variable‐interval two‐minute variable‐interval two‐minute schedules. In Experiment 1, the reinforcers were 2, 4, or 8 seconds access to a food magazine. In Experiments 2 and 3, the reinforcers were grains that had been determined to be most‐, moderately‐, or non‐preferred. Both positive and negative behavioral contrast occurred when the reinforcers in one component were held constant and the duration or type of reinforcer obtained in the other component varied. Undermatching occurred when the relative rate of responding during a component was plotted as a function of the relative duration of the reinforcers in that component.