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EFFECTS OF MAGNITUDE OF FOOD REINFORCEMENT ON FREE‐OPERANT RESPONSE RATES
Author(s) -
Reed Phil,
Wright J. E.
Publication year - 1988
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.1988.49-75
Subject(s) - reinforcement , operant conditioning , differential reinforcement , schedule , psychology , conditioning , magnitude (astronomy) , audiology , statistics , mathematics , computer science , social psychology , medicine , physics , operating system , astronomy
In Experiment 1 rats were trained to press a lever on a variable‐ratio schedule of food presentation and were then exposed to progressively increasing magnitudes of food reinforcement. Response running rates (rates exclusive of the postreinforcement pause) were found to increase as a function of increasing reinforcement magnitudes. The effect of reinforcement magnitude on response rates inclusive of the postreinforcement pause, however, was less pronounced. Increases in the magnitude of reinforcement were also found to increase the length of the postreinforcement pause. Rats in Experiment 2 were trained to respond on a chained differential‐reinforcement‐of‐low‐rate variable‐ratio schedule, and were exposed to increasing magnitudes of reinforcement as in Experiment 1. Response running rates increased in the variable‐ratio component but decreased in the other component of the schedule. The results are discussed with reference to incentive accounts of reinforcement and the action of reinforcement on the response units generated by the operative contingencies.