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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1972 Sep;18(2):253–261. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1972.18-253

The effects of terminal-link fixed-interval and variable-interval schedules on responding under concurrent chained schedules1

David MacEwen
PMCID: PMC1334010  PMID: 16811629

Abstract

Previous work using variable-interval schedules in the terminal links of concurrent chained schedules suggested that relative choice proportion in the initial links equalled relative rate of reinforcement in the terminal links. With fixed-interval terminal-link schedules, however, matching was not obtained. The present study held pairs of fixed-interval terminal-link schedules in a constant ratio but varied absolute sizes. Relative choice for the smaller terminal-link fixed-interval schedule was a negatively accelerated, increasing function of absolute size of the fixed-interval pairs. Matching was found only with the fixed-interval pair of 5 and 10 sec. When pairs of variable-interval schedules were arranged so that the harmonic mean of the intervals equalled the fixed-interval parameter values, relative choice functions were like those for fixed-interval schedules.

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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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