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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1973 Sep;20(2):281–290. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1973.20-281

A comparison of measures of responding under fixed-interval schedules1

Thomas D Dukich, Andrew E Lee
PMCID: PMC1334128  PMID: 16811707

Abstract

Average response rate, post-reinforcement pause, elapsed time to the fourth response, average quarter-life, and running rate were examined to see how they reflected changes in fixed-interval performance. Rats were exposed to a mixed schedule of water presentation comprising fixed-interval schedules of two durations. Changes in responding were produced by varying the duration of the shorter component. The five measures were derived only from the longer schedule component. Post-reinforcement pause, elapsed time to the fourth response in the interval, and quarter-life all showed high, positive inter-correlations (0.78<r<0.99). Running rate and post-reinforcement pause were not as highly correlated. Quarter-life reliably reflected changes in fixed-interval performance but changes in the quarter-life value did not necessarily result from similar changes in fixed-interval response pattern. The two measures that adequately described changes in response patterning were post-reinforcement pause and running rate. These two measures also had the advantage of being simple both computationally and in terms of the instrumentation involved in their recording.

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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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