Undermatching and contrast within components of multiple schedules

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Psychology
• Animal Behavior
• Operant Conditioning

Background:

• Multiple schedules of reinforcement involve alternating components with different schedules.
• Behavioral contrast describes changes in response rates in one component due to reinforcement changes in another.
• Local contrast and induction effects can occur within schedule components.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how response rates and behavioral contrast change across subintervals within multiple schedules.
• To determine the role of time since component alternation on schedule sensitivity.

Main Methods:

• Four pigeons were exposed to multiple variable-interval schedules.
• Each schedule had a constant 60-second variable-interval component and a varied component.
• Response rates were recorded in five subintervals of each component.

Main Results:

• Local contrast and induction effects were observed in the changed component.
• Behavioral contrast magnitude did not reliably change across subintervals of the constant component.
• Response rate ratios were sensitive to reinforcement ratios, especially in initial subintervals.

Conclusions:

• Sensitivity to reinforcement changes decreased over time within schedule components.
• The findings demonstrate that multiple schedule sensitivity is influenced by the time elapsed since component alternation.