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Related Concept Videos

Reinforcement Schedules01:24

Reinforcement Schedules

721
Positive reinforcement is a powerful method for teaching new behaviors to both animals and humans. B.F. Skinner demonstrated this with his experiments using rats in a Skinner box. When a rat pressed a lever, it received a food pellet. This immediate reward encouraged the rat to repeat the behavior. This method, where a reward follows every instance of the behavior, is known as continuous reinforcement. It is highly effective for establishing new behaviors quickly.
Once a behavior is learned,...
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Timing and Consequences on Behavior01:08

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

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In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective. 
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant...
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Related Experiment Video

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Rats' choices with token stimuli in concurrent variable-interval schedules.

James E Mazur1

  • 1Southern Connecticut State University.

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|August 19, 2014
PubMed
Summary

Rats learned to choose between levers based on token rewards, with choices influenced by the time to get food and the amount of food received. Token lights did not appear to act as conditioned reinforcers.

Keywords:
concurrent variable-interval schedulesconditioned reinforcersdiscriminative stimulihyperbolic discountinglever pressratstoken stimuli

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Psychology
  • Animal Cognition
  • Operant Conditioning

Background:

  • Understanding how animals make choices is crucial in behavioral psychology.
  • Token stimuli are often used to study complex decision-making processes in animals.
  • Previous research has explored the role of token stimuli in pigeons' choice behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how rats choose between concurrent schedules of reinforcement.
  • To examine the influence of token stimuli, exchange requirements, and reinforcer quantity on choice behavior.
  • To determine if token stimuli function as conditioned reinforcers or discriminative stimuli.

Main Methods:

  • Four rats were trained on concurrent variable-interval schedules delivering token stimuli.
  • Token stimuli were exchanged for food pellets on a center lever.
  • Exchange requirements (tokens per pellet) and the presence/absence of token lights were manipulated.

Main Results:

  • Rats' lever choices were influenced by both the time to exchange periods and the number of food pellets obtained.
  • Response percentages varied with earned tokens, indicating sensitivity to schedule parameters.
  • Rats showed a slight preference for the lever without token lights, suggesting they did not act as conditioned reinforcers.

Conclusions:

  • Token stimuli in this choice procedure primarily function as discriminative stimuli.
  • These stimuli signal the temporal proximity and quantity of the primary reinforcer (food).
  • Findings align with previous research in pigeons, supporting generalizability across species.