TEMPORAL CONTROL IN FIXED-INTERVAL SCHEDULES

The peak procedure was used to study temporal control in pigeons exposed to seven fixed‐interval schedules ranging from 7.5 to 480 s. The focus was on behavior in individual intervals. Quantitative properties of temporal control depended on whether the aspect of behavior considered was initial pause...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior 1994-01, Vol.61 (1), p.1-9
Main Authors: Zeiler, Michael D., Powell, David G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animal behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Birds
Conditioning
fixed-interval schedules
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
key peck
Learning. Memory
peak procedure
pigeons
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
timing
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Summary:The peak procedure was used to study temporal control in pigeons exposed to seven fixed‐interval schedules ranging from 7.5 to 480 s. The focus was on behavior in individual intervals. Quantitative properties of temporal control depended on whether the aspect of behavior considered was initial pause duration, the point of maximum acceleration in responding, the point of maximum deceleration, the point at which responding stopped, or several different statistical derivations of a point of maximum responding. Each aspect produced different conclusions about the nature of temporal control, and none conformed to what was known previously about the way ongoing responding was controlled by time under conditions of differential reinforcement. Existing theory does not explain why Weber's law so rarely fit the results or why each type of behavior seemed unique. These data fit with others suggesting that principles of temporal control may depend on the role played by the particular aspect of behavior in particular situations.
ISSN:0022-5002
1938-3711
DOI:10.1901/jeab.1994.61-1