DELAY AND NUMBER OF FOOD REINFORCERS: EFFECTS ON CHOICE AND LATENCIES

Pigeons were given a choice between two identical‐duration situations (terminal links of chain schedules). One terminal link of the choice pair provided two food deliveries, and the other provided five. The exact times of these food deliveries differed between the terminal links and were varied over...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior 1990-03, Vol.53 (2), p.235-246
Main Authors: Shull, Richard L., Mellon, Robert C., Sharp, Jennifer A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animal behavior
Biological and medical sciences
choice
conditioned reinforcement
Conditioning
delay of reinforcement
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
key peck
latency
Learning. Memory
number of reinforcers
pigeons
preresponse pause
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Pigeons were given a choice between two identical‐duration situations (terminal links of chain schedules). One terminal link of the choice pair provided two food deliveries, and the other provided five. The exact times of these food deliveries differed between the terminal links and were varied over conditions. A single response during the initial link gave immediate access to the corresponding terminal link. Forced trials, during which only one of the initial‐link keys was lighted, were interspersed with choice trials during which both initial‐link keys were lighted. Choice tended to favor whichever terminal link was correlated with the higher sum of the immediacies (i.e., the sum of the reciprocals of the delays to each of the reinforcers following the choice, with all delays measured from the choice). Latencies on forced trials and on choice trials also were related (negatively) to the sum of the immediacies. This correlation among response measures (choice and latencies) suggests that both measures are manifestations of the effect of conditioned reinforcement on response tendencies.
ISSN:0022-5002
1938-3711
DOI:10.1901/jeab.1990.53-235