Some effects of reinforcer availability on the pigeon’s responding in 24-hour sessions (original) (raw)
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Animal Learning & Behavior, 1976
Four pigeons pecked for food reinforcement on variable interval L-min schedules and on the variable-interval I-min components of multiple. concurrent. and pseudoconcurrent schedules. The pseudoconcurrent schedule provided only one schedule of reinforcement; but. any reinforcer could be collected by responding on either of two keys. The rate of responding generated by the variable interval schedule was not greater than the rates of responding generated by the components of the complex schedules. But. the rate of reinforcement obtained from the variable interval schedule was greater than the rates of reinforcement obtained from the components of the multiple schedule. These results may contradict the equation proposed by Herrnstein (19701. The equation predicts that the rate of responding generated by a schedule of reinforcement will be greater when the schedule appears alone. than when it appears as one component of a complex schedule.
The Response‐Reinforcement Dependency in Fixed‐Interval Schedules of REINFORCEMENT1
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1970
Pigeons were exposed to four different schedules of food reinforcement that arranged a fixed minimum time interval between reinforcements (60 sec or 300 sec). The first was a standard fixed‐interval schedule. The second was a schedule in which food was presented automatically at the end of the fixed time interval as long as a response had occurred earlier. The third and fourth schedules were identical to the first two except that the first response after reinforcement changed the color on the key. When the schedule required a peck after the interval elapsed, the response pattern consisted of a pause after reinforcement followed by responding at a high rate until reinforcement. When a response was not required after the termination of the interval, the pattern consisted of a pause after reinforcement, followed by responses and then by a subsequent pause until reinforcement. Having the first response after reinforcement change the color on the key had little effect on performance. Pos...
Stimulus control of behavior induced by a periodic schedule of food presentation in pigeons
1980
Four pigeons were exposed to a fixed-time (FTl 27-sec schedule of food presentation in a large chamber partitioned into several areas. Each area provided different environmental support stimuli, such as water, nesting material, or the opportunity to observe another bird. A stereotyped pattern of behavior developed, with the birds leaving the food area early in intervals (interim activity) and returning to perform a food-related behavior (terminal response) toward the end of intervals. Unlike rats under similar conditions, the pigeons' interim activities did not seem to be under the direct control of environmental stimuli. Early in intervals. the birds simply turned and walked away from the food area for a few seconds, before returning to perform the terminal response.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1969
The effect of several reinforcement schedules on the variability in topography of a pigeon's key-peck response was determined. The measure of topography was the location of a key peck within a 10-in. wide by 0.75-in. high response key. Food reinforcement was presented from a magazine located below the center of the response key. Variability in response locus decreased to a low value during training in which each response produced reinforcement. Variability increased when fixed intervals, variable intervals, random intervals, or extinction were scheduled.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1969
The effect of several reinforcement schedules on the variability in topography of a pigeon's key-peck response was determined. The measure of topography was the location of a key peck within a 10-in. wide by 0.75-in. high response key. Food reinforcement was presented from a magazine located below the center of the response key. Variability in response locus decreased to a low value during training in which each response produced reinforcement. Variability increased when fixed intervals, variable intervals, random intervals, or extinction were scheduled.
Observing responses in pigeons: effects of schedule component duration and schedule value1
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1973
Pigeons wvere exposed to a procedure under which five pecks on one response key (the observing key) changed the schedule on a second key (the food key) from a mixed schedule to a multiple schedule for 25 sec. In Experiment I, a random-ratio 50 schedule alternated with extinction. The duration of the random-ratio 50 schedule component wvas varied between 1.25 and 320 sec, and extinction was scheduled for a varying tinme, ranging from the duration of the random-ratio 50 to four times that value. Each set of values wvas scheduled for a block of sessions. Before observing-key pecks were allowed at each set of paramiieter values, the pigeons wvere exposed to a condition wvhere the miiixed and multiple schedule alternated every 10 imin, and observing-key pecks were not permitted. Rates of pecking on the observing key vere high for all values of random-ratio component durations except 1.25 sec. Experimiient II was conducted with the random-ratio component duration equal to 40 sec, and the random-ratio schedule vas varied from random-ratio 50 to 100, 200, and 400. Observing-key pecking rates were high for all values of the random-ratio schedule except random-ratio 400. In both experimiients, observing response rates were relatively little affected, suggesting that neither schedule component duration nor schedule value is a strong determinant of observing responses. Observing responses are responses that produce discriminative stimuli (WVyckoff, 1950, 1952). In W%lyckoff's original procedure, pigeons could press a treadle that produced stimuli correlated with either a fixed-interval (FI) 30-sec schedule of food reinforcement or with extinction. Operation of the treadle did not change the alternation of Fl 30-sec and extinction components, but only produced a stimulus that indicated which component was currently in effect. In the terminology of Ferster and Skinner (1957), an observing response temporarily changes a mixed (mix) schedule to a multiple (muilt) sclhedule. Some investigators have argued that presentation of the stimulus correlated with more 'The research reported here was supported by USPHS Grant No. MH-01604 from NIMH and is based on parts of a dissertation submitted to the graduate school of the University of Maryland in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree. Preparation of the manuscript wvas aided by USPHS Grant No. MH-18421.
Within-session patterns in variable-interval schedule performance: Variation with deprivation level
Behavioural Processes, 2007
Previous research has shown that patterns in operant responding may change within the course of individual experimental sessions. The proper interpretation of such changes is controversial. At least one source of this controversy may lie in unstated experimental practices across laboratories, as published reports often have failed to detail important particulars of deprivation operations. The present study was aimed at gathering descriptive data on the contribution of deprivation operations to the observation of within-session changes. In two experiments, four food deprived pigeons were exposed to a multiple variable-interval 30-s variable-interval 30-s schedule of grain presentation, wherein each grain presentation was kept constant at 5 s. In Condition I, a session-entry criterion was in place that permitted the pigeon access to the daily session only if its body weight fell within controlled limits. Within-session rates of responding were generally stable. In Condition II, the entry criterion was removed and experimental sessions were conducted 6 days per week. The effect of removing the session-entry criterion was to increase body weight for all birds and decrease food intake across conditions. With no session entry criterion, robust within-session changes were observed for three of the four pigeons. The results suggest that rich schedules of reinforcement often used in the analysis of within-session changes can produce substantial reductions in deprivation levels that require up to several days to reverse. Future experiments in this area should take precautions to insure that deprivation is tightly controlled and report such measures to eliminate potential errors in replication.
Food duration and signal-controlled responding by pigeons
Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 1985
Six pigeons were exposed to a procedure in which a tone preceded response-dependent grain. Pecks during the tone omitted grain for that trial. The magnitude of reinforcement, as manipulated by feeder duration, had no effect on the frequency of omission responding. The results are interpreted in the context of Scalar Expectancy Theory.
Waiting in pigeons: the effects of daily intercalation on temporal discrimination
1992
Pigeons trained on cyclic-interval schedules adjust their postfood pause from interval to interval within each experimental session. But on regular fixed-interval schedules, many sessions at a given parameter value are usually necessary before the typical fixed-interval "scallop" appears. In the first case, temporal control appears to act from one interfood interval to the next; in the second, it appears to act over hundreds of interfood intervals. The present experiments look at the intermediate case: daily variation in schedule parameters. In Experiments 1 and 2 we show that pauses proportional to interfood interval develop on short-valued response-initiated-delay schedules when parameters are changed daily, that additional experience under this regimen leads to little further improvement, and that pauses usually change as soon as the schedule parameter is changed. Experiment 3 demonstrates identical waiting behavior on fixed-interval and response-initiated-delay schedules when the food delays are short (<20 s) and conditions are changed daily. In Experiment 4 we show that daily intercalation prevents temporal control when interfood intervals are longer (25 to 60 s). The results of Experiment 5 suggest that downshifts in interfood interval produce more rapid waiting-time adjustments than upshifts. These and other results suggest that the effects of short interfood intervals seem to be more persistent than those of long intervals. Key words: linear waiting, timing, fixed-interval schedules, response-initiated delay schedules, key peck, pigeons One of the most reliable aspects of performance on any reinforcement schedule is the postreinforcement pausing observed when reinforcers are delivered at regular time intervals. Independent of any response-reinforcer contingency, birds and mammals (including humans, under some conditions) learn to postpone food-related responses after each food delivery for a time proportional to the typical interfood interval (temporal control: Chung &
Conjunctive schedules of reinforcement II: response requirements and stimulus effects1
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1975
Responding of three pigeons was maintained under conjunctive fixed-ratio, fixed-interval schedules where a key peck produced food after both schedule requirements were completed. The individual schedule requirements were then successively removed and reinstated with responding maintained under the following conditions: conjunctive fixedratio, fixed-time; fixed-time; and fixed-interval schedules. Patterns of responding changed in accord with the successive removal of the schedule requirements. Compared to the conjunctive fixed-ratio, fixed-interval schedule, pause duration increased and response rate decreased under conjunctive fixed-ratio, fixed-time schedules and under fixed-time schedules alone. Overall mean rates of responding were highest and pause duration lowest under fixed-interval schedules. When changes in the keylight colors were correlated with completion of the fixed-ratio, the end of the fixed-interval, or both of these conditions, the pattern of responding was modified and indicated a greater degree of control by the individual schedules. Although two birds showed large increases in interreinforcement time when they were initially exposed to the conjunctive schedule, when responding stabilized this measure was largely invariant for all birds across most schedule conditions.