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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1970 Sep;14(2):127–131. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1970.14-127

Preference for fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement1

Peter Killeen
PMCID: PMC1333711  PMID: 16811462

Abstract

Pigeons were trained on a two-link concurrent chain schedule in which responding on either of two keys in the initial link occasionally produced a terminal link, signaled by a change in the color of that key and a darkening of the other. Further responding on the lighted key was reinforced with food according to a fixed-interval schedule. For one of the keys, this fixed interval was always 20 sec, while for the other it was held at values of 5, 14, 30, or 60 sec for several weeks. In the initial link, all pigeons responded relatively more often on the key with the shorter fixed interval than was predicted by the matching hypothesis. Responding in the initial link showed a large negative recency effect: pigeons responded less frequently on the key that provided their last reinforcement than predicted from the overall response rates.

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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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