Reinforcer accumulation in a token-reinforcement context with pigeons
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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning
Published on: June 2, 2014
Rachelle L Yankelevitz1, Christopher E Bullock, Timothy D Hackenberg
1University of Florida, USA. ryank@ufl.edu
Abstract:
Four pigeons were exposed to a token-reinforcement procedure with stimulus lights serving as tokens. Responses on one key (the token-production key) produced tokens that could be exchanged for food during an exchange period. Exchange periods could be produced by satisfying a ratio requirement on a second key (the exchange-production key). The exchange-production key was available any time after one token had been produced, permitting up to 12 tokens to accumulate prior to exchange. Token accumulation, measured in terms of both frequency (percent cycles with accumulation) and magnitude (mean number of tokens accumulated), decreased as the token-production ratio increased from 1 to 10 across conditions (with exchange-production ratio held constant), and increased as the exchange-production ratio increased from 1 to 250 across conditions (with token-production ratio held constant). When tokens were removed, accumulation decreased markedly compared to conditions with tokens and the same schedules. These data show that token accumulation is an orderly function of token-production and exchange-production schedules, and they are broadly consistent with a unit-price model based on local and global responses per reinforcer.
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