A quantitative analysis of the effects of amount of reinforcement on two response classes.

Abstract

The effects of varying amounts of reinforcement on the rate and temporal patterns of interim and terminal behaviors engendered by periodic feeding schedules were assessed in three experiments. Although the experiments differed in terms of species, response-reinforcement dependencies, and response measures, the results were consistent. Increases in amount of reinforcement appeared to have a general energizing effect on behavior. For pigeons, interim levels of general activity and terminal rates of key pecking increased uniformly with increases in the duration of reinforcement (Experiments 1 and 2). For rats, nondirected interim activity and terminal activity directed at the food source reliably increased with increases in the magnitude of reinforcement (Experiment 3). The temporal patterns of interim activities were well represented by a simple mathematical model, and there was a correspondence in the parameter changes o"f the model as amount of reinforcement was varied. Arousal, as indexed i by the predicted asymptotic levels of activity, was shown to be an increasing linear function of amount of reinforcement for both rats and pigeons. The present data challenge previous research that suggests that amount of reinforcement has little or no effect on behavior and show that average-response-rate measures fail to accommodate the nonlinear changes in responding that result when amount of reinforcement is varied.Reliable and systematic relationships have investigations showed that the rate at which been found between rate of responding and rats pressed a lever or ran an alleyway was frequency and delay of reinforcement, but an increasing function of amount of reininconclusive and apparently inconsistent re-forcement (Crespi, 1942;Guttman, 1953; suits have been obtained when the magnitude Zeaman, 1949). However, other research has of reinforcement has been varied. Some early shown either that changes in amount of reinforcement have little effect on rate of respending (Catania, 1963; Keesey & Kling, This report is based on a dissertation sub-1961 Schr j e r, 1962) or that response rate mitted to Arizona State University

Rats don’t always respond faster for more food: The paradoxical incentive effect

“…Rather than a weak independent variable, the problem is that absolute response rates are an insensitive dependent variable, especially at high rates of reinforcement. One of the reasons for this insensitivity are ceilings on rate: Osborne (1978) showed that general activity increased to a much greater extent with increases in amount of reinforcement than did keypecking or leverpressing.…”

Economics, Ecologics, and Mechanics: The Dynamics of Responding Under Conditions of Varying Motivation

“…Figure 6 provides a striking picture of the impact that such within-session satiation can have on our overall models of behavior. The top left panel shows response rates from the first 5 min of each schedule, displaying the form that Catania and Reynolds (1968) Effects of session duration and satiation similar to those shown above were found by Dougan, Kuh, and Vink (1993) and Osborne (1977). Satiation and warm-up effects can be substantial, and the mechanics of behavior provides a framework within which to derive models of them.…”

Signaled reinforcement effects on fixed-interval performance of the rat

“…FI schedules have been shown to induce many nonreinforced behaviors (see, e.g., Anderson & Shettleworth, 1977;Roper, 1978;Staddon & Simmelhag, 1971), and the overall frequency and the temporal pattern of the reinforced behavior seems to be affected by the induced behaviors (Osborne, 1978;Staddon, 1977). Information on other behaviors occuring will provide empirical support for the tracking hypothesis and may explain two effects of the signals: the irreversibility of the effect on the response rate and the facilitation of the temporal discrimination observed in some conditions.…”