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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1974 Nov;22(3):535–545. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1974.22-535

Temporal control of periodic schedules: signal properties of reinforcement and blackout1

Bettie C Starr, J E R Staddon
PMCID: PMC1333303  PMID: 16811818

Abstract

Pigeons were exposed to periodic food-reinforcement schedules in which intervals ended with equal probability in either reinforcement or brief blackout. The effects on the pattern of key pecking of sequential probability of reinforcement, interval duration, and time to reinforcement opportunity were investigated in three experiments. The major results were: (1) at short absolute interval durations, time to reinforcement opportunity determined both postreinforcement and postblackout pause (time to first key peck within an interval); (2) at long intervals, postblackout pause was consistently shorter than postreinforcement pause, even if both events signalled the same time to the next reinforcement opportunity (omission effect); (3) when reinforcement and blackout signalled different times to the next reinforcement opportunity, within the same experiment, there was some evidence for interactions analogous to behavioral contrast.

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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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