ERIC Number: EJ862911
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Mar
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-5002
EISSN: N/A
Single-Sample Discrimination of Different Schedules' Reinforced Interresponse Times
Tanno, Takayuki; Silberberg, Alan; Sakagami, Takayuki
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, v91 n2 p157-167 Mar 2009
Food-deprived rats in Experiment 1 responded to one of two tandem schedules that were, with equal probability, associated with a sample lever. The tandem schedules' initial links were different random-interval schedules. Their values were adjusted to approximate equality in time to completing each tandem schedule's response requirements. The tandem schedules differed in their terminal links: One reinforced short interresponse times; the other reinforced long ones. Tandem-schedule completion presented two comparison levers, one of which was associated with each tandem schedule. Pressing the lever associated with the sample-lever tandem schedule produced a food pellet. Pressing the other produced a blackout. The difference between terminal-link reinforced interresponse times varied across 10-trial blocks within a session. Conditional-discrimination accuracy increased with the size of the temporal difference between terminal-link reinforced interresponse times. In Experiment 2, one tandem schedule was replaced by a random ratio, while the comparison schedule was either a tandem schedule that only reinforced long interresponse times or a random-interval schedule. Again, conditional-discrimination accuracy increased with the temporal difference between the two schedules' reinforced interresponse times. Most rats mastered the discrimination between random ratio and random interval, showing that the interresponse times reinforced by these schedules can serve to discriminate between these schedules. (Contains 2 tables and 8 figures.)
Descriptors: Intervals, Probability, Animals, Experiments, Food, Reaction Time, Discrimination Learning, Conditioning, Animal Behavior, Experimental Psychology
Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Available from: Indiana University Department of Psychology. Bloomington, IN 47405-1301. Tel: 812-334-0395; FAX: 812-855-4691; e-mail: jeab@indiana.edu; Web site: http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jeab/index.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A