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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Measuring Maxillary Posterior Tooth Movement: A Model Assessment using Palatal and Dental Superimposition
Published on: February 23, 2024
Melioration, matching, and maximization
Abstract:
Pigeons were studied in an experiment involving two concurrently available response keys. Conditions were such that in the first condition the predictions of melioration (Herrnstein & Vaughan, 1980), minimization of deviation from matching, and maximization were identical: relative time on the right key should have fallen between .125 and .25, which in fact occurred. In the second condition, melioration predicted a shift in relative time on the right to between .75 and .875, which would involve a transient deviation from matching as well as a substantial drop in rate of reinforcement. All three birds eventually shifted their distribution of behavior to within the range predicted by melioration.
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