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THE EFFECTS OF SCHEDULE HISTORY AND THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ADJUNCTIVE RESPONDING ON BEHAVIOR DURING A FIXED‐INTERVAL SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT
Author(s) -
Johnson Lisa M.,
Bickel Warren K.,
Higgins Stephen T.,
Morris Edward K.
Publication year - 1991
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.1991.55-313
Subject(s) - reinforcement , schedule , polydipsia , psychology , interval (graph theory) , computer science , statistics , social psychology , mathematics , medicine , endocrinology , combinatorics , diabetes mellitus , operating system
The effects of schedule history and the availability of an adjunctive response (polydipsia) on fixed‐interval schedule performance were investigated. Two rats first pressed levers under a schedule of food reinforcement with an interresponse time greater than 11 s, and 2 others responded under a fixed‐ratio 40 schedule. All 4 were then exposed to a fixed‐interval 15‐s schedule. Water was continuously available under these conditions, but after responding became stable on the fixed‐interval schedule, access was experimentally manipulated. With water freely available, subjects did not display characteristic fixed‐interval response rates and patterns (i.e., scalloping or break‐and‐run). Instead, they exhibited predictable, stable patterns of behavior as a function of their schedule histories: Subjects with the interresponse‐time history exhibited low response rates, and those with the fixed‐ratio history exhibited high rates. Manipulating the amount of water available resulted in marked changes in response rates for rats with the interresponse‐time history but not for those with the fixed‐ratio history. The results illustrate the multiple causation of behavior by its previous and current schedules of reinforcement and other concurrent factors.