Delayed reinforcement and fixed-ratio performance

Effects of delayed reinforcement on fixed-ratio (FR) maintained responding of pigeons were investigated. In Experiments 1-3, the delay of reinforcement was increased across successive sessions until pigeons paused for 300 s. Both signaled and unsignaled delays were studied across different conditions. Overall response rates and run rates (timed from the first to last response of a ratio) decreased and postreinforcement pauses increased as delays increased in each experiment. As delays increased, the likelihood of pausing during a ratio run also increased. When these measures were plotted as a function of obtained delays, signaled delays had less of an effect on the above measures than did unsignaled ones. In Experiment 2, delays had a greater effect on the above measures than did a control condition arranging equivalent interreinforcer intervals to those accompanying the delays. Experiments 3 and 4 examined the generality of the effects obtained in the first two experiments. In Experiment 3, delays imposed on FR or yoked-interval schedules had similar behavioral effects. In Experiment 4, effects similar to those found in Experiments 1-3 for 1, 10, and 20-s delays imposed on FR 50 schedules were found when the FR requirement increased across sessions. Despite the different contingencies relating response rate and reinforcement rates on interval and ratio schedules, delays of reinforcement generally affect performance on these schedules similarly.