THE SENSITIVITY OF RESPONSE RATE TO THE RATE OF VARIABLE-INTERVAL REINFORCEMENT FOR PIGEONS AND RATS: A REVIEW

The relation between the rate of a response (B) and the rate of its reinforcement (R) is well known to be approximately hyperbolic: B = kR/(R + Ro), where k represents the maximum response rate, and Roindicates the rate of reinforcers that will engender a response rate equal to half its maximum valu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior 2005-07, Vol.84 (1), p.99-110
Main Author: Shull, Richard L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Behavior
Animals
Appetitive Behavior
Behavioral Science Research
Birds
Columbidae
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Experiments
Food
Herrnstein's hyperbola
Intervals
Literature Reviews
Motivation
Operant Conditioning
pigeons
Positive Reinforcement
Rats
Reaction Time
Reinforcement Schedule
reinforcer effectiveness
response strength
Responses
Review
Rodents
Species Specificity
variable-interval schedule
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Summary:The relation between the rate of a response (B) and the rate of its reinforcement (R) is well known to be approximately hyperbolic: B = kR/(R + Ro), where k represents the maximum response rate, and Roindicates the rate of reinforcers that will engender a response rate equal to half its maximum value. A review of data reported in 17 published papers revealed that, under variable‐interval schedules of reinforcement, Ro was usually lower when pigeons were the subjects than when rats were the subjects. The value of k, in contrast, did not differ consistently between pigeons and rats. Some accounts interpret Ro as the rate of alternative, unscheduled reinforcers in the situation, expressed in units of the scheduled reinforcer. So interpreted, the difference in Ro implies that less alternative reinforcement (relative to the scheduled reinforcement) typically is available to pigeons in their operant conditioning chambers than it is to rats in theirs. Whether or not that interpretation of Ro is valid, the pigeon—rat difference in Ro ensures that for reinforcer rates above about 10 per hour, response rate will be noticeably less sensitive to changes in reinforcer rate (and presumably to changes in other incentive and motivational operations) with pigeons than with rats as subjects, at least with the experimental conditions typically employed.
ISSN:0022-5002
1938-3711
DOI:10.1901/jeab.2005.03-05