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. 1976 Mar;25(2):243–250. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1976.25-243

Response bias and the discrimination of stimulus duration1

D Alan Stubbs
PMCID: PMC1333456  PMID: 16811908

Abstract

Pigeons discriminated stimulus duration in a psychophysical choice situation. Following presentation of any duration from a set of short duration (11 to 15 sec), responses on a red key were reinforced intermittently. Following presentation of any duration from a set of long durations (16 to 22 sec), responses on a green key were reinforced intermittently. Relative reinforcement rates were manipulated for choice responses across conditions. As relative reinforcement rates were varied, psychometric functions showed shifts in green-key responses at all durations. A signal-detection analysis showed that sensitivity remained roughly constant across conditions while response bias changed as a function of changes in relative reinforcement rate. Relative error rates tended to match relative reinforcement rates.

Keywords: stimulus duration, signal detection, discrimination, response bias, matching function, concurrent schedules, 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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