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CHOICE BEHAVIOR OF RATS IN A CONCURRENT‐CHAINS SCHEDULE: AMOUNT AND DELAY OF REINFORCEMENT
Author(s) -
Ito Masato,
Asaki Kazue
Publication year - 1982
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.1982.37-383
Subject(s) - reinforcement , equivalence (formal languages) , schedule , interval (graph theory) , power function , exponent , function (biology) , mathematics , statistics , computer science , psychology , combinatorics , discrete mathematics , social psychology , biology , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , evolutionary biology , operating system
Rats were exposed to concurrent‐chains schedules in which the terminal links were equal fixed‐interval schedules terminating in one or three food pellets. Choice proportions for large reward increased with increases in delay intervals programmed on fixed‐interval schedules and supported the predictions derived from a general choice model originally formulated by Fantino and later developed by Navarick and Fantino. In addition, a functional equivalence of two alternatives was established by increasing delay intervals with large reward, whereas delay intervals for small reward were held constant. Functionally equivalent delay intervals with large reward, for each delay interval with small reward, can be described by a power function with exponent smaller than 1.0. A better prediction of choice proportions resulted when this function was used to derive predicted choice proportions.