An Exploration of Remote History Effects in Humans: II. The Effects Under Fixed-Interval, Variable-Interval, and Fixed-Ratio Schedules

Abstract

Five undergraduates responded under a fixed-ratio (FR) 145 schedule, and 5 others responded under a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL)20 Weiner (1964) found that humans with histories of fixed-ratio (FR) schedules responded at high rates under fixed-interval (FI) schedules, whereas those with differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedule histories responded at low rates under the same FI schedules. Since this seminal work appeared, many investigators have shown with different species under different schedules that current behaviors were affected by schedules immediately before the current ones (e.g., Nader & Thompson, 1987;Urbain, Poling, Millam, & Thompson, 1978;Wanchisen, Tatham, & Mooney, 1989).Weiner (1969) also reported a result suggesting that organisms' behavior was affected by schedules that had been in effect in the remote past. He exposed humans to DRL, FR, and FI schedules, in that order. Response rates during ten 1-hr sessions under the FI schedule were low and not similar to those shown under the FR schedule, which had been in effect immediately before the current FI schedule. Rather, the rates more closely resembled those shown under the DRL schedule, which had been in effect long before the FI.

Stimulus control and generalization of remote behavioral history

“…These results also replicate differential remote history effects in humans, which have been obtained between individuals (Okouchi, ; Weiner, ), within individuals. Okouchi () demonstrated such effects between humans by exposing one group of undergraduates to an FR schedule and a second group to a DRL schedule.…”

“…These results also replicate differential remote history effects in humans, which have been obtained between individuals (Okouchi, ; Weiner, ), within individuals. Okouchi () demonstrated such effects between humans by exposing one group of undergraduates to an FR schedule and a second group to a DRL schedule. Response rates between the groups, which were different under the FR and DRL schedules, became nondifferential once under a subsequent pacing schedule, but differentiated again when FI and VI schedules were in effect.…”

“…First, the values of the schedules were set such that IRIs were longer during the testing condition than during the intervening condition (see Tables and ). This procedure was employed because Okouchi () obtained remote history effects when the IRIs of the testing condition were longer than those of the intervening condition. Under this circumstance, responding that was reinforced in the intervening condition does not produce reinforcers in the testing condition.…”

Some Determinants of Remote Behavioral History Effects in Humans

“…By contrast, such a response-rate differentiation occurred only for 1 of 4 participants not having that history. In previous experiments, history effects have been found to reemerge even though they were extinguished under certain schedules using between-individual comparisons (Okouchi, 2007(Okouchi, , 2010Weiner, 1969Weiner, , 1982. The present results replicate that finding with within-individual comparisons.…”

Diferentes Magnitudes do Custo da Resposta em Um Múltiplo FI FI, Após Uma História em Um Múltiplo FR FR

“…Diferentemente da pesquisa de Costa et al (2009), que analisou, mas não controlou diretamente o IRI entre as fases do estudo, a presente pesquisa procurou controlar o IRI entre as duas fases do experimento (ver Tabela 2). Isso foi feito porque segundo Okouchi (2003Okouchi ( , 2007Okouchi ( , 2010, o IRI pode exercer uma função discriminativa no comportamento de humanos. Os resultados da presente pesquisa apontaram que o IRI não foi bem controlado.…”