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Updated: Jul 15, 2025
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Modeling Verbal Behavior Deficits with the Stimulus Control Ratio Equation, SCoRE
Published on: May 14, 2019
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Stimulus control of a social operant
Kennon A Lattal1, Hiroto Okouchi2
1Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|September 26, 2023
Summary
Pigeons learned to coordinate their key pecks within 500 milliseconds for reinforcement. This coordinated responding, a form of discriminated social operant behavior, was higher when required by the stimulus-controlled schedule.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Animal Behavior
- Operant Conditioning
Background:
- Investigates the conditions under which social behavior emerges in pigeons.
- Examines the role of reinforcement schedules in shaping coordinated actions.
- Utilizes a two-component multiple schedule to study stimulus control.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if pigeons can learn to coordinate their responses for reinforcement.
- To analyze the effect of a coordination requirement on response rates.
- To assess the role of stimulus control in maintaining coordinated behavior.
Main Methods:
- Three pigeon dyads were exposed to a multiple schedule with coordination and control components.
- Reinforcement was contingent on key pecks within 500 ms in the coordination component.
- Interresponse times (IRT) greater than 3 seconds were reinforced, and stimulus-response contingencies were reversed.
Main Results:
- Pigeons exhibited higher rates of coordinated interresponse times (IRT > 3s) and total coordinated responses in the coordination component.
- The difference in coordinated responding between components was initially diminished and then reestablished following stimulus-response contingency reversals.
- Coordinated responding was sensitive to the presence or absence of the coordination requirement under stimulus control.
Conclusions:
- Coordinated responding functions as a discriminated social operant in pigeons.
- Social coordination can be established and maintained through specific reinforcement contingencies.
- Stimulus control plays a crucial role in the emergence and maintenance of discriminated social behavior.
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