Abstract
Four rats pressed levers and received food pellets under fixed-interval reinforcement schedules of 20, 60, and 180 seconds. The number of responses in each interval was recorded. From these data, the probability of reinforcement was determined as a function of response count. These functions were generally increasing. This finding is consistent with previous suggestions that increasing response rates within fixed intervals may be a function of response count in addition to or instead of elapsed or remaining time.
Keywords: reinforcement probability, ordinal position, response sequence, fixed interval, lever press, rats
Full text
PDFSelected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- ANGER D. The dependence of interresponse times upon the relative reinforcement of different interresponse times. J Exp Psychol. 1956 Sep;52(3):145–161. doi: 10.1037/h0041255. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- HANSON H. M., CAMPBELL E. H., WITOSLAWSKI J. J. FI length and performance of an FI FR chain schedule of reinforcement. J Exp Anal Behav. 1962 Jul;5:331–333. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1962.5-331. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lowe C. F., Harzem P. Species differences in temporal control of behavior. J Exp Anal Behav. 1977 Nov;28(3):189–201. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1977.28-189. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- MECHNER F., GUEVREKIAN L., MECHNER V. A fixed interval schedule in which the interval is initiated by a response. J Exp Anal Behav. 1963 Jul;6:323–330. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1963.6-323. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Shull R. L., Brownstein A. J. Interresponse time duration in fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement: control by ordinal position and time since reinforcement. J Exp Anal Behav. 1970 Jul;14(1):49–53. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1970.14-49. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]