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STIMULUS‐FOOD RELATIONS AND FREE‐OPERANT POSTPONEMENT OF TIMEOUT FROM RESPONSE‐INDEPENDENT FOOD PRESENTATION
Author(s) -
Galbicka Gregory,
Branch Marc N.
Publication year - 1983
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.1983.40-153
Subject(s) - timeout , pecking order , reinforcement , psychology , postponement , stimulus (psychology) , cognitive psychology , social psychology , statistics , mathematics , operations management , biology , economics , evolutionary biology
Grain was briefly presented to food‐deprived pigeons intermittently and response‐independently except during signaled timeouts. During Experiment 1, key pecks postponed the next timeout for a specified interval. Rates of pecking during time in were inversely related to the length of time pecking postponed the next timeout. Response‐independent presentation of temporal distributions of timeouts exactly matched to a preceding postponement condition decreased pecking rates during Experiment 2. These results indicate that key pecking of pigeons can be controlled by response‐dependent postponement of timeout, but that responses elicited by stimulus‐reinforcer relations inherent in timeout‐postponement procedures may substantially modify rates and patterns of pecking.