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Does contingent reinforcement strengthen operant behavior?

J A Nevin, L D Smith, J Roberts

    Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
    |July 1, 1987
    PubMed
    Summary
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    Pigeons showed higher response rates with contingent reinforcement transitions but not greater resistance to change. This suggests that response-contingent reinforcement does not necessarily increase resistance to change in behavior.

    Area of Science:

    • Behavioral psychology
    • Animal cognition
    • Operant conditioning

    Background:

    • Understanding factors influencing behavioral persistence is crucial in psychology.
    • Previous research suggests reinforcement schedules impact behavior, but the role of transition contingency requires further investigation.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To investigate whether response-contingent transitions to richer schedules or nonreinforcement increase resistance to change in pigeons.
    • To examine the influence of stimulus-reinforcer relations on behavioral persistence.

    Main Methods:

    • Pigeons were trained on key-pecking tasks with varying reinforcement schedules.
    • Experiment 1 involved transitions to a richer schedule under contingent or noncontingent conditions.
    • Experiment 2 examined transitions to nonreinforcement and replicated Experiment 1's richer schedule transition.

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    Main Results:

    • Higher response rates were observed in initial components preceding contingent transitions to a richer schedule.
    • Resistance to extinction was not consistently greater with contingent transitions.
    • Noncontingent transitions to a richer schedule sometimes showed greater resistance to change than noncontingent transitions to nonreinforcement.

    Conclusions:

    • Response-contingent reinforcement does not appear to increase resistance to change.
    • Stimulus-reinforcer relations may play a significant role in determining behavioral persistence.
    • Behavioral economics principles can be applied to understand reinforcement schedules and persistence.