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EFFECTS OF REINFORCEMENT HISTORY ON RESPONSE RATE AND RESPONSE PATTERN IN PERIODIC REINFORCEMENT
Author(s) -
López Florente,
Menez Marina
Publication year - 2005
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.2005.49-04
Subject(s) - reinforcement , conditioning , schedule , interval (graph theory) , term (time) , psychology , statistics , computer science , mathematics , social psychology , physics , combinatorics , quantum mechanics , operating system
Several researchers have suggested that conditioning history may have long‐term effects on fixed‐interval performances of rats. To test this idea and to identify possible factors involved in temporal control development, groups of rats initially were exposed to different reinforcement schedules: continuous, fixed‐time, and random‐interval. Afterwards, half of the rats in each group were studied on a fixed‐interval 30‐s schedule of reinforcement and the other half on a fixed‐interval 90‐s schedule of reinforcement. No evidence of long‐term effects attributable to conditioning history on either response output or response patterning was found; history effects were transitory. Different tendencies in trajectory across sessions were observed for measures of early and late responding within the interreinforcer interval, suggesting that temporal control is the result of two separate processes: one involved in response output and the other in time allocation of responding and not responding.