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DISCRIMINATION TRAINING, PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT, AND INCREASES IN INTERTRIAL INTERVAL ALL REDUCE RESPONSE SPEED IN A CONTINUOUSLY REINFORCED KEY‐PECKING TASK
Author(s) -
Reilly Steve,
Macphail Euan M.
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.1995.64-215
Subject(s) - reinforcement , pecking order , task (project management) , key (lock) , interval (graph theory) , psychology , audiology , cognitive psychology , computer science , social psychology , mathematics , medicine , computer security , engineering , systems engineering , combinatorics , evolutionary biology , biology
Pigeons were trained in a discrete‐trial task in which a response to the center key obtained illumination of a side key and a single response to the side key terminated a trial with either reinforcement or nonreinforcement. Center‐key speeds (i.e., reciprocals of latencies) declined with increases in intertrial interval, and it is argued that this effect is related to a decreased likelihood as intertrial interval increases that birds will be near the key at trial onset. Side‐key speeds on trials with reinforcement decreased both with increases in intertrial interval and with shifts from continuous reinforcement to either a discrimination or a partial‐reinforcement condition. The effects on side‐key speeds are compared with effects observed in alley‐running tasks using rats, and an interpretation in terms of frustration theory is offered for the results obtained in both types of task.