The Behavioral Theory of Timing: Reinforcer Rate Determines Pacemaker Rate

Bizo, Lewis A.; White, K. Geoffrey

doi:10.1901/jeab.1994.61-19

Cited by 110 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…This pattern may be due to the particular requirements of the FOPP. Specifically, in baseline FOPP trials, time since trial onset necessarily served as a discriminative stimulus signaling the active key (see also Bizo & White, 1994, 1995Cowie, Bizo, & White, 2016;. Because target responding was reinforced during the initial interval, and alternative responding was reinforced at a later interval, the greater levels of alternative than target responding during extended probe trials may have been due to the subjects generalizing responding along the dimension of time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The VI schedules were sampled without replacement from lists of 13 intervals (Flesher & Hoffman, 1962). Consistent with previous FOPP procedures (e.g., Bizo & White, 1994), interval timers only ran during the appropriate half, and reinforcers arranged but not obtained were held until the next reinforced trial. Hopper times were not subtracted from the trial timer to maintain constant trial durations (see also Bizo & White, 1994).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extinction trials were identical to trials with reinforcement except that both keys arranged extinction for the entire 50-s duration of the trial. Analysis of baseline responding was taken from these extinction trials to exclude the local effects of reinforcement (see also Bizo & White, 1994;Chiang, Al-Ruwaitea, Ho, Bradshaw, & Szabadi, 1998;Cowie, Bizo, & White, 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The FOPP was developed to study temporal discrimination processes by assessing how responding transitions from one alternative to another when reinforcement contingencies repeatedly reverse between those alternatives at a specified time (e.g., Bizo & White, 1994;da Silva & Lattal, 2006;Stubbs, 1980). Bizo and White (1994) arranged 50-s trials with pigeons pecking for food reinforcement across two concurrently available keys. During the first half of each trial, responding on the left key was intermittently reinforced according to a VI schedule while responding on the right key was not reinforced (effectively, a concurrent VI vs. extinction schedule).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Quantitative analysis of local-level resurgence

2016

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Resurgence is the recurrence of a previously reinforced and then extinguished behavior induced by the extinction of another more recently reinforced behavior. Resurgence provides insight into behavioral processes relevant to treatment relapse of a range of problem behaviors. Resurgence is typically studied across three phases: (1) reinforcement of a target response, (2) extinction of the target and concurrent reinforcement of an alternative response, and (3) extinction of the alternative response, resulting in the recurrence of target responding. Because each phase typically occurs successively and spans multiple sessions, extended time frames separate the training and resurgence of target responding. This study assessed resurgence more dynamically and throughout ongoing training in 6 pigeons. Baseline entailed 50-s trials of a freeoperant psychophysical procedure, resembling Phases 1 and 2 of typical resurgence procedures. During the first 25 s, we reinforced target (left-key) responding but not alternative (right-key) responding; contingencies reversed during the second 25 s. Target and alternative responding followed the baseline reinforcement contingencies, with alternative responding replacing target responding across the 50 s. We observed resurgence of target responding during signaled and unsignaled probes that extended trial durations an additional 100 s in extinction. Furthermore, resurgence was greater and/or sooner when probes were signaled, suggesting an important role of discriminating transitions to extinction in resurgence. The data were well described by an extension of a stimulus-control model of discrimination that assumes resurgence is the result of generalization of obtained reinforcers across space and time. Therefore, the present findings introduce novel methods and quantitative analyses for assessing behavioral processes underlying resurgence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Quantitative analysis of local-level resurgence

2016

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“…Reinforcer duration can be calculated for a range of manipulations that affect total reinforcer duration per session. Pacemaker rate has been shown to vary as a function of reinforcer frequency (Bizo & White, 1994a;Fetterman & Killeen, 1991;MacEwen & Killeen, 1991;Morgan, Killeen, & Fetterman, 1993), reinforcer duration (Bizo & White, 1994b;Fetterman & Killeen, 1991;MacEwen & Killeen, 1991), and intertrial interval (III) duration (Bizo & White, 1994b;Fetterman & Killeen, 1991;RasIear, Shurtleff, & Simmons, 1990).…”

Section: T Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

Reinforcement context and pacemaker rate in the behavioral theory of timing

Bizo

White

1995

Animal Learning & Behavior

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In the present experiment, an attempt was made to extend the base of evidence for the assumption of the behavioral theory of timing that pacemaker rate is determined by reinforcement rate. Pigeons discriminated the first half from the second half of a 50-sec trial in a free-operant psychophysical procedure. Left-key responding was reinforced at variable intervals during the first 25 sec, and right-key responding was reinforced at variable intervals during the second 25 sec. The rate of "extraneous" reinforcers delivered at variable intervals following responses to a center key was manipulated independently of performance in the temporal discrimination. Quantitative estimates of pacemaker rate were not directly proportional to extraneous rate of reinforcement, whether extraneous reinforcers were available during the intertrial interval, the entire session, or the trial only. Instead, estimates of pacemaker rate were inversely related to the rate of extraneous reinforcement, which suggests that pacemaker rate is determined by the ratio of the rate of reinforcement for the timing response relative to other sources of reinforcement.The behavioral theory of timing (BeT) provides a successful account of animal timing (Killeen, 1991;Killeen & Fetterman, 1988. Several propositions are fundamental to BeT. First, individuals possess an internal pacemaker. Second, pacemaker pulses cause transitions between hypothetical sequential "adjunctive states." Third, Killeen and Fetterman (1988, 1993) have suggested that adjunctive behavior becomes correlated with the sequential states. In particular, the adjunctive behavior correlated with state n serves as a discriminative stimulus that occasions the timing response required at time t. The adjunctive behavior gains utility as a discriminative stimulus by virtue of the selective action of reinforcement that follows the timing response. Mathematically, the model predicts the time at which state n occurs. Behaviorally, the timing response is occasioned by the adjunctive behavior that occurs at about time t, that is, when in state n. The time at which state n is reached depends on the pacemaker period. Thus, timing consists of a conditional discrimination based on the adjunctive behavior. For example, if an individual is in a state correlated with a "long" duration as opposed to some shorter duration and is asked to make a temporal -Accepted by previous editor, Vincent M. LoLordo discrimination, it would be more likely to respond "long" ifit is engaged in behavior previously correlated with the "long" state than if it is engaged in behavior that is not well correlated with being in the "long" state.BeT assumes that pacemaker pulses cause transitions between hypothetical sequential states according to the Poisson process given by p N(t) = n = . n! P[N(t)= n] gives the probability that by time t the number of pulses registered is n. The average pacemaker period is r, and pacemaker rate is 1/t:A major assumption of BeT is that pacemaker rate varies as a positive linear function of rein...

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Neuropsychological mechanisms of interval timing behavior

2000

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Interval timing in the seconds-to-minutes range is believed to underlie a variety of complex behaviors in humans and other animals. One of the more interesting problems in interval timing is trying to understand how the brain times events lasting for minutes with millisecond-based neural processes. Timing models proposing the use of coincidence-detection mechanisms (e.g., the detection of simultaneous activity across multiple neural inputs) appear to be the most compatible with known neural mechanisms. From an evolutionary perspective, coincidence detection of neuronal activity may be a fundamental mechanism of timing that is expressed across a wide variety of species.

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The Behavioral Theory of Timing: Reinforcer Rate Determines Pacemaker Rate

Cited by 110 publications

References 14 publications

Quantitative analysis of local-level resurgence

Quantitative analysis of local-level resurgence

Reinforcement context and pacemaker rate in the behavioral theory of timing

Neuropsychological mechanisms of interval timing behavior

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