Premium
SUCCESSIVE INDEPENDENCE AND BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST IN A CLOSED ECONOMY
Author(s) -
White K. Geoffrey,
Alsop Brent,
McLean Anthony P.
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.1992.58-313
Subject(s) - reinforcement , schedule , independence (probability theory) , contrast (vision) , constant (computer programming) , matching law , component (thermodynamics) , computer science , statistics , psychology , mathematics , social psychology , artificial intelligence , physics , thermodynamics , programming language , operating system
Two pigeons had access to multiple concurrent schedules of reinforcement for 24 hours per day in their home cages. The variable‐interval schedules comprising the multiple concurrent schedules were varied across 16 conditions. In three sets of conditions, one schedule was varied while its concurrent alternative and the concurrent schedules in the other component were held constant. Behavioral contrast was observed; that is, as the rate of reinforcement arranged by the varied schedule decreased, response rates on the constant schedules typically increased. These conditions formed part of two larger sets of conditions in which the concurrent schedules in one multiple‐schedule component remained constant while the concurrent schedules in the other component were varied. Successive independence was found, in that behavior allocation during the constant component did not vary as a function of the reinforcer ratios in the varied component. Successive independence between components in multiple concurrent schedules is a robust result that occurs in closed economies and under conditions that promote behavioral contrast.