The delay-reduction hypothesis: effects of informative events on response rates and choice

The present study replicated a prior one by Pearce and Collins (1985) in which informative events displayed greater reinforcing strength than did uninformative ones despite higher rates of reinforcement on the uninformative alternative, both in a choice test and in a test that presented the events successively. The delay-reduction hypothesis of choice and conditioned reinforcement is consistent with results from the successive test but cannot account for the choice results. As the original study conducted the choice test following the successive test for all subjects, and as no reversals of the choice procedure were carried out, the present study replicated Pearce and Collins (1985) while controlling for order effects. Pigeons' relative rate of responding on the informative side was significantly greater in the successive procedure than in the choice procedure (as in the prior study); however, the uninformative side was significantly preferred to the informative side in the choice procedure when order of exposure to the two types of procedures was controlled. Both findings are consistent with the delay-reduction hypothesis.