Two-key concurrent paced variable-interval paced variable-interval schedules of reinforcement.

Abstract

Nine pigeons were used in two experiments in which a response was reinforced if a variable-interval schedule had assigned a reinforcement and if the response terminated an interresponse time within a certain interval, or class, of interresponse times. One such class was scheduled on one key, and a second class was scheduled on a second key. The procedure was, therefore, a two-key concurrent paced variable-interval paced variable-interval schedule. In Exp. I, the lengths of the two reinforced interresponse times were varied. The relative frequency of responding on a key approximately equalled the relative reciprocal of the length of the interresponse time reinforced on that key. In Exp. II, the relative frequency and relative magnitude of reinforcement were varied. The relative frequency of responding on the key for which the shorter interresponse time was reinforced was a monotonically increasing, negatively accelerated function of the relative frequency of reinforcement on that key. The relative frequency of responding depended on the relative magnitude of reinforcement in approximately the same way as it depended on the relative frequency of reinforcement. The relative frequency of responding on the key for which the shorter interresponse time was reinforced depended on the lengths of the two reinforced interresponse times and on the relative frequency and relative magnitude of reinforcement in the same way as the relative frequency of the shorter interresponse time depended on these variables in previous one-key concurrent schedules of reinforcement for two interresponse times.