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INVESTIGATING BEHAVIORAL DYNAMICS WITH A FIXED‐TIME EXTINCTION SCHEDULE AND LINEAR ANALYSIS
Author(s) -
Palya William L.,
Walter Don,
Kessel Robert,
Lucke Robert
Publication year - 1996
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.1996.66-391
Subject(s) - reinforcement , extinction (optical mineralogy) , schedule , predictability , filter (signal processing) , computer science , psychology , control theory (sociology) , statistics , mathematics , artificial intelligence , social psychology , physics , control (management) , optics , operating system , computer vision
This paper describes the behavioral adaptation observed for 16 pigeons responding to a step transition in the reinforcement rate in a repeated‐trial design. Within each trial, following exposure for a fixed period to a variable‐interval schedule, there was an unsignaled change in the schedule to extinction. The step transition allowed an experimental test of the applicability of a linear analysis to steady‐state dynamic behavior. The computations required for this test yielded, as an intermediate result, transfer functions for each of the 16 birds from 1 mHz to 256 mHz. The transfer functions obtained show greater responsiveness to lower frequencies (i.e., longer time‐scale structures in the reinforcement schedule); hence, the pigeons have the characteristics of a low‐pass filter. The outcome of the test is that some predictability of the pigeons' future behavior is possible.

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