Premium
EFFECTS OF RESPONSE‐ALLOCATION CONSTRAINTS ON MULTIPLE‐SCHEDULE PERFORMANCE
Author(s) -
Davison Michael,
Charman Lesle
Publication year - 1987
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.1987.47-29
Subject(s) - reinforcement , component (thermodynamics) , schedule , statistics , mathematics , computer science , psychology , social psychology , physics , thermodynamics , operating system
Four pigeons were trained on multiple variable‐interval schedules in which components alternated after a fixed number of responses had been emitted. In Part 1, each component change occurred after 20 responses; in Part 2, the number was 40; and in Part 3, the number of responses before change was 10. Component reinforcer rates were varied over five experimental conditions in each of Parts 1 to 3. Component response rates decreased as the specified number of responses per component was increased. However, the relation between component response‐rate ratios and component reinforcer‐rate ratios was independent of the specified number of responses per component, and was similar to that found when components alternate after fixed time periods. In the fourth part of the experiment, the results from Parts 1 to 3 were systematically replicated by keeping the component reinforcer rates constant, but different, while the number of responses that produced component alternation was varied from 5 to 60 responses. The results showed that multiple‐schedule performance under component‐response‐number constraint is similar to that under conventional component‐duration constraint. They further suggest that multiple‐schedule response rates are controlled by component reinforcer rates and not by principles of maximizing overall reinforcer rates or meliorating component reinforcer rates.