2014/12/22 by Adam E. Fox, Elizabeth G. E. Kyonka · 25 citations
Mathematics · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Behavioral and Psychological Studies #Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills #Combinatorics #Computer science #Food delivery #Interval (graph theory) #Mathematics #Neuroscience and Music Perception #Psychology #Reinforcement #Schedule #Social psychology #Statistics
paper · doi:10.1002/jeab.120
published in Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 103(2), 375-392 (Wiley)
crossref issued 2014/12/22 · crossref published 2014/12/22 · crossref published-online 2014/12/22 · openalex publication_date 2014/12/22 · crossref created 2014/12/23 · crossref published-print 2015/03/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · crossref deposited 2021/07/05 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Different events can serve as time markers that initiate intervals in schedules of reinforcement. Pigeons were exposed to fixed-interval (FI) schedules in which the onset of the interval was signaled by the illumination of a key light or initiated by a peck to a lighted key. Food was delivered following the first response after the interval elapsed. In Experiment 1, three pigeons were exposed to a multiple schedule. One component was a standard FI schedule: Key light illumination signaled the onset of the interval. The other component was a response-initiated fixed-interval (RIFI) schedule: The first key-peck response determined the onset of the interval. In Experiment 2, three pigeons were exposed to a multiple FI-RIFI schedule of reinforcement and on occasional trials food was not delivered (i.e. "no-food" or "peak trials"). A yoking procedure equated reinforcement rates between the schedule types in both experiments. Absolute response rates early in the intervals were higher in the RIFI schedules of both experiments. Normalized response-rate gradients, ogive fits of normalized response gradients, and breakpoints were not systematically different for the schedule types in Experiment 1, indicating similar patterns of responding between interval onset and food delivery. However, during peak trials in Experiment 2 the duration of responding at a high rate was longer for RIFI schedules than FI schedules. This suggests that timing precision was reduced in the RIFI schedules and that relative "distinctiveness" of a time marker may determine its efficacy.