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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1964 Nov;7(6):391–399. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1964.7-391

Effects of a DRL contingency added to a fixed-interval reinforcement schedule1

John Farmer, W N Schoenfeld
PMCID: PMC1404490  PMID: 14238904

Abstract

Following 30 days of reinforcement for the bar press response of two white rats on 30-sec fixed-interval (FI), a DRL component was added so that a minimal interresponse time (IRT) for the reinforced response, in addition to the FI variable, was necessary for reinforcement. Marked control over response rate by the superimposed DRL requirement was demonstrated by an inverse hyperbolic function as the DRL component was increased from 1 to 24 sec within the constant 30-sec FI interval. Interresponse time and post-reinforcement (post-SR) “break” distributions taken at one experimental point (DRL = 24 sec) suggested that a more precise temporal discrimination was initiated by an SR than by a response, since the relative frequency of a sequence of two reinforced responses appeared greater than that of a sequence of a non-reinforced response followed by a reinforced one. This latter finding was confirmed with new animals in a follow-up experiment employing a conventional 24-sec DRL schedule.

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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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