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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1988 May;49(3):351–365. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1988.49-351

Concurrent-chain performance: Effects of absolute and relative terminal-link entry frequency

Brent Alsop, Michael Davison
PMCID: PMC1338796  PMID: 16812545

Abstract

Six pigeons were trained in a concurrent-chain procedure with constant variable-interval 6-s variable-interval 12-s terminal links. Five groups of conditions were arranged. Within a group of conditions, the duration of one initial-link schedule was held constant and the duration of the other initial link was varied. The duration of the varied initial link was always longer than, or equal to, the constant initial-link duration. The duration of the shorter initial link was varied across groups of conditions from 5 s to 70 s. The data from each group were well described by the generalized matching law. Sensitivity (a) to the terminal-link entry ratio increased as the shorter initial-link duration increased, but appeared to reach an asymptote at shorter initial-link durations greater than 32 s. Terminal-link bias did not change with changes in shorter initial-link duration for the response-allocation data, but showed a small increase with increasing shorter initial-link duration for the time-allocation data.

Keywords: concurrent-chain schedules, generalized matching law, sensitivity to entry frequency, bias, response allocation, time allocation, key peck, 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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