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KEY PECKING OF PIGEONS UNDER VARIABLE‐INTERVAL SCHEDULES OF BRIEFLY SIGNALED DELAYED REINFORCEMENT: EFFECTS OF VARIABLE‐INTERVAL VALUE
Author(s) -
Schaal David W.,
Schuh Kory J.,
Branch Marc N.
Publication year - 1992
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.1992.58-277
Subject(s) - reinforcement , pecking order , matching law , variable (mathematics) , psychology , schedule , interval (graph theory) , peck (imperial) , statistics , value (mathematics) , mathematics , social psychology , computer science , ecology , combinatorics , biology , mathematical analysis , geometry , operating system
Key pecking of 4 pigeons was maintained under a multiple variable‐interval 20‐s variable‐interval 120‐s schedule of food reinforcement. When rates of key pecking were stable, a 5‐s unsignaled, nonresetting delay to reinforcement separated the first peck after an interval elapsed from reinforcement in both components. Rates of pecking decreased substantially in both components. When rates were stable, the situation was changed such that the peck that began the 5‐s delay also changed the color of the keylight for 0.5 s (i.e., the delay was briefly signaled). Rates increased to near‐immediate reinforcement levels. In subsequent conditions, delays of 10 and 20 s, still briefly signaled, were tested. Although rates of key pecking during the component with the variable‐interval 120‐s schedule did not change appreciably across conditions, rates during the variable‐interval 20‐s component decreased greatly in 1 pigeon at the 10‐s delay and decreased in all pigeons at the 20‐s delay. In a control condition, the variable‐interval 20‐s schedule with 20‐s delays was changed to a variable‐interval 35‐s schedule with 5‐s delays, thus equating nominal rates of reinforcement. Rates of pecking increased to baseline levels. Rates of pecking, then, depended on the value of the briefly signaled delay relative to the programmed interfood times, rather than on the absolute delay value. These results are discussed in terms of similar findings in the literature on conditioned reinforcement, delayed matching to sample, and classical conditioning.