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ACTION AT A TEMPORAL DISTANCE: COMPONENT TRANSITION AS THE RELATIONAL BASIS FOR SUCCESSIVE DISCRIMINATION
Author(s) -
White K. Geoffrey
Publication year - 1995
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.1995.64-185
Subject(s) - reinforcement , stimulus (psychology) , stimulus control , hue , psychology , exponent , discriminative model , power function , mathematics , audiology , developmental psychology , pattern recognition (psychology) , artificial intelligence , social psychology , cognitive psychology , computer science , neuroscience , mathematical analysis , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , nicotine
In a successive discrimination, red and green hues signaled component variable‐interval schedules. The exponent of the power function relating ratios of responses in the red and green components to ratios of reinforcers provided a reinforcement‐free measure of discrimination or stimulus control. Responses were recorded in successive 10‐s subintervals of the 50‐s components. The power‐function exponent decreased systematically with increasing time since component transition in most conditions of five experiments. This reduction was not influenced by the absolute rate of reinforcement, consistent with the interpretation of the exponent as a measure of stimulus control. A reduction in the overall level of stimulus control by increasing the duration of response‐produced keylight offset did not influence the decrease in discrimination with increasing time since component transition. The results support the conclusion that discriminative responding in successive discriminations is governed by several sources of stimulus control including delayed control by component transition.