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Inhibiting function of reinforcement: magnitude effects on variable-interval schedules.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|July 1, 1978
Summary
Reinforcer concentration impacts rat behavior, influencing response pauses and rates. These findings suggest reinforcement has an inherent suppressive effect on behavior, separate from its signaling role.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Animal behavior studies
Background:
- Reinforcement schedules are crucial in understanding operant conditioning.
- The role of reinforcer magnitude and omission in modulating behavior requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare rat performance under constant-probability and arithmetic variable-interval schedules.
- To investigate the effects of varying reinforcer concentration and omission on postreinforcement pause duration and response acceleration.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using rats.
- Variable-interval schedules with constant-probability and arithmetic conditions were employed.
- Reinforcer concentration was varied within sessions, and half of the reinforcers were randomly omitted in separate sessions.
Main Results:
- Postreinforcement pause duration increased with reinforcer magnitude, even when the discriminative function of the reinforcer was attenuated.
- This relationship was more pronounced under the arithmetic schedule, enhancing temporal control.
- The reinforcement-omission effect, characterized by accelerated response rates after omission, was observed only when the reinforcer acted as an effective temporal discriminative stimulus.
Conclusions:
- Reinforcement may exert an unconditioned suppressive effect on behavior, independent of its discriminative properties.
- Temporal discriminative control is essential for observing the reinforcement-omission effect.
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