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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1974 Jan;21(1):99–107. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1974.21-99

Concurrent performances: stimulus-control gradients during schedules of signalled and unsignalled concurrent reinforcement1

A Charles Catania, Philip J Silverman, D Alan Stubbs
PMCID: PMC1333173  PMID: 16811737

Abstract

On one key, pigeons' pecks were reinforced according to a variable-interval schedule in the presence of vertical lines, and were not reinforced in the presence of oblique lines. On a second key, pecks were reinforced according to a variable-interval schedule in the presence of blue, according to a signalled variable-interval schedule in the presence of red, and were not reinforced in the presence of white. Subsequently, during extinction, stimulus-control gradients were obtained by presenting eight different line orientations on the first key concurrent with each of the three colors on the second key. On the first key, line-orientation gradients tended to be lower, narrower, and less shifted in peak or area when the second-key stimulus was blue or red, the stimuli respectively correlated with unsignalled and signalled reinforcement, than when it was white, the stimulus correlated with extinction. Thus, the effect on first-key line-orientation gradients depended on second-key stimuli correlated with concurrent reinforcement, whether or not these stimuli were also correlated with concurrent responding. As a function of first-key line orientation, an inverted gradient was obtained on the second key during blue; during both red and white, rates of pecking on the second key were near zero.

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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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