Reinforcement signals facilitate learning about early behaviors of a response sequence

Schachtman, Todd R.; Reed, Phil

doi:10.1016/0376-6357(92)90027-b

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Thus, if we treat this long IRT as the unit of behavior to be facilitated, the signal should attenuate, rather than enhance, the rate of responding. In addition, Schachtman and Reed (1992) presented an experiment in which a two-response sequence was reinforced, and the signal facilitated learning about the initial, rather than the terminal, response. If the signal facilitates the initial portion of the fixed interval, the response rate will be reduced.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signaled reinforcement effects on fixed-interval performance of the rat

Nakajima

Kitaguchi

1996

Animal Learning & Behavior

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In three experiments using fixed-interval schedules with a 500-msec delay of reinforcement, rats receiving a localized light signal during the delay leverpressed more slowly than rats trained without the signal. In Experiment 1 these groups showed no differences in temporal patterning of responding, but in the remaining two experiments the signaled rats showed better patterning than the unsignaled rats. In Experiments 2 and 3 rats receiving a diffuse tone signal during the delay instead of a light pressed more rather than less rapidly than the unsignaled group. Their patterning was better than that of the unsignaled rats in one of these experiments. Several explanations for both the attenuation and enhancing effects of signaling reward are discussed, Animals trained on variable-interval (VI) schedules of briefly delayed reinforcement respond more slowly when an explicit signal stimulus fills the delay, At first, this phenomenon was interpreted as evidence that the signal overshadows an instrumental response or restricts the development of response-reinforcer association, resulting in the attenuation of the rate of responding (Dickinson,

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signaled reinforcement effects on fixed-interval performance of the rat

Nakajima

Kitaguchi

1996

Animal Learning & Behavior

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“…In the present Phase 1, when reinforcement was made contingent on one of a number of possible response sequences, the frequency of emission of the reinforced sequence increased, and exceeded the frequency of emission of all other possible sequences. Although this effect has been demonstrated extensively in pigeons (Fetterman & Stubbs, 1982; Grayson & Wasserman, 1979; Luck et al, 1988; Stubbs et al, 1987; Wasserman et al, 1984), few studies have demonstrated this effect in rats (but see Schachtman & Reed, in press). The present study also demonstrated that presenting a signal along with reinforcement facilitated the acquisition of the required response sequence (see also Reed et al, in press).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Experiment 1 used a modified version of the Vogel and Annau (1973) technique to establish whether, in rats (see also Reed et al, in press; Schachtman & Reed, in press), a specific sequence of responses would emerge even when no particular sequence was necessary to earn reinforcement. If stereotyped response sequences are created under these conditions, then it may be expected that subjects will come to emit one sequence of responses to a much higher degree than others (Schwartz, 1984).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This observation supports the notion that in rats, as in pigeons (cf. Schwartz, 1980, 1984), contingent reinforcement will generate stereotyped response sequences (see also Reed et al, in press; Schachtman & Reed, in press). A statistical demonstration of response stereotyping is made difficult by the possibility that because of the arrangement of the levers and the effects of pretraining, not all response sequences are equally likely to occur.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this notion requires that free-operant schedules generate sequences of behavior that are functionally equivalent to a single response (i.e., are behavioral units) and that a signal for reinforcement acts on the entire pattern of responding. As yet, there have been few demonstrations in studies examining the signaled-reward effect that these two assumptions hold true (but see Reed, Schachtman, & Rawlins, in press; Schachtman & Reed, in press).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Effect of signaled reinforcement on the formation of behavioral units.

Reed¹,

Schachtman²,

Hall³

1991

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

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Experiments examined the influence of a brief reinforcement signal on the acquisition of a response sequence and investigated whether such sequences serve as behavioral units. In Experiment 1, hungry rats emitted 2 responses on each of 2 levers to earn food reward. There was no constraint on the sequence in which the 2 responses per lever could be emitted, but rats came to emit 1 of the permitted 4-response sequences to a greater degree than the others. Signaled reinforcement promoted emission of the dominant response sequence. In Experiments 2 and 3, rats with signaled reinforcement displayed facilitated acquisition of the required response sequence, and emission of the sequence persisted after the schedule, reinforcing the required sequence, which was shifted to a variable interval 45-s schedule. These results imply that Ss may learn about response sequences longer than a single lever press and that a signal for reinforcement facilitates this process.Presenting a brief, response-contingent stimulus immediately prior to the delivery of reward attenuates the rate of response on variable interval (VI) schedules (

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