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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1982 Mar;37(2):157–169. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1982.37-157

Choice and behavioral patterning

Charles P Shimp
PMCID: PMC1333131  PMID: 16812262

Abstract

Ten pigeons pecked left and right keys in a discrete-trials experiment in which access to food was contingent upon changeovers to the right key after particular runs of left-key pecks. In each of three sets of conditions, two run lengths were reinforced according to a concurrent variable-interval schedule: reinforcement followed runs of either 1 or 2, 1 or 4, or 2 or 4 left-key pecks preceding changeovers. The intertrial interval separating successive pecks was varied from .5 to 10.0 sec, and the relative frequency of reinforcement for the shorter of the two reinforced runs was varied from 0 to .75. The contingencies established local behavioral patterning that roughly approximated that required for reinforcement. For a fixed pair of reinforced run lengths, preference for the shorter of the two frequently increased as the intertrial interval increased and therefore as the minimum temporal durations of both reinforced runs increased. Preference for the shorter of the two also increased as its corresponding relative frequency of reinforcement increased. Both of these effects on preference were qualitatively similar to corresponding effects in previous research with two different kinds of reinforced behavioral patterns, interresponse times and interchangeover times. In all these experiments, analytical units were found in the temporal patterns of behavior, not in the behavior immediately contiguous with a reinforcer. It is suggested that a particular local temporal pattern of behavior is established to the extent to which it is repeatedly remembered when reinforcers are delivered, regardless of whether the delivery of a reinforcer is explicitly contingent upon that pattern.

Keywords: choice, variable-interval schedules, changeovers, differential reinforcement, behavioral patterning, pigeons

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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