Rapid Acquisition of Choice and Timing and the Provenance of the Terminal-Link Effect

Author(s)
Kyonka, Elizabeth
Grace, Randolph C
Publication Date
2010
Abstract
Eight pigeons responded in a concurrent-chains procedure in which terminal-link schedules changed pseudorandomly across sessions. Pairs of terminal-link delays either summed to 15 s or to 45 s. Across sessions, the location of the shorter terminal link changed according to a pseudorandom binary sequence. On some terminal links, food was withheld to obtain start and stop times, measures of temporal control. Log initial-link response ratios stabilized within the first half of each session. Log response ratio was a monotonically-increasing but nonlinear function of programmed log terminal-link immediacy ratio. There was an effect of absolute terminal-link duration on log response ratio: For most subjects, preference for the relatively shorter terminal-link delay was stronger when absolute delays were long than when absolute delays were short. Polynomial regressions and model comparison showed that differences in degree of nonlinearity, not in sensitivity to log immediacy ratio, produced this effect. Temporal control of stop times was timescale invariant with scalar variability, but temporal control of start times was not consistent across subjects or terminal-link durations. (Contains 7 figures, 4 tables and 1 footnote.)
Citation
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 94(2), p. 209-225
ISSN
1938-3711
0022-5002
Link
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc
Title
Rapid Acquisition of Choice and Timing and the Provenance of the Terminal-Link Effect
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

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