Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Modeling Verbal Behavior Deficits with the Stimulus Control Ratio Equation, SCoRE
Published on: May 14, 2019
Response-reinforcer relations and the maintenance of behavior
Abstract:
The effects on pigeons' key pecking of unsignaled delays of reinforcement and response-independent reinforcement were compared after either variable-interval or differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate baseline schedules. One 30-min session arranging delayed reinforcement and one 30-min session arranging response-independent reinforcement were conducted daily, 6 hr apart. A within-subject yoked-control procedure equated reinforcer frequency and distribution across the two sessions. Response rates usually were reduced more by response-independent than by delayed but response-contingent delivery of reinforcers. Under both schedules, response rates were lower when obtained delays were greater. These results bear upon methodological and conceptual issues regarding comparisons of contingencies that change the temporal response-reinforcer relations.
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