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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1974 May;21(3):425–432. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1974.21-425

Stimulus control of responding during a fixed-interval reinforcement schedule1

Donald M Wilkie
PMCID: PMC1333215  PMID: 16811754

Abstract

During training sessions, pecks by pigeons on a response key illuminated by a vertical line of white light resulted in reinforcement and an ensuing blackout according to a fixed-interval schedule. Training sessions were followed by dimensional stimulus control test sessions during which the orientation of the line present throughout the fixed interval was varied. Inverted U-shaped (excitatory) gradients of responding, with maximum responding occurring in the presence of the vertical line, were observed during the terminal part of the fixed interval. U-shaped (inhibitory) gradients of responding, with minimum responding occurring in the presence of the vertical line, were observed during the early part of the fixed interval when the preceding interval had terminated with reinforcement and blackout but not when the preceding interval had terminated with blackout only. These results suggest that the dimensional control by the stimulus present throughout the fixed interval is of a conditional variety. Whether the fixed-interval stimulus exerts inhibitory or excitatory dimensional control depends upon the presence and absence, respectively, of stimuli associated with reinforcement.

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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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