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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1984 Mar;41(2):157–167. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1984.41-157

Frequency versus magnitude of reinforcement: New data with a different procedure

João Claudio Todorov, Elenice Seixas Hanna, Maria Cristina Neves Bittencourt De Sá
PMCID: PMC1348029  PMID: 16812364

Abstract

Two pigeons, with previous exposure to concurrent schedules, were submitted to 29 sessions of 8 hours each with concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules in which reinforcement parameters changed from session to session. In the first nine sessions reinforcement durations were equal in both schedules while reinforcement frequencies varied; in Sessions 10 through 18, both frequency and duration of reinforcement were varied; in Sessions 19 through 29, only reinforcement duration was varied. Results with this different procedure confirm previous findings that behavior is more sensitive to changes in reinforcement frequency than to reinforcement magnitude.

Keywords: concurrent schedules, variable-interval schedules, reinforcement frequency, reinforcement magnitude, reinforcement duration, matching relation, undermatching, key pecking, 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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