Rapid Acquisition of Preference in Concurrent Chains When Alternatives Differ on Multiple Dimensions of Reinforcement

Title
Rapid Acquisition of Preference in Concurrent Chains When Alternatives Differ on Multiple Dimensions of Reinforcement
Publication Date
2008
Author(s)
Kyonka, Elizabeth
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7974-6080
Email: ekyonka@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:ekyonka
Grace, Randolph C
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.1901/jeab.2008.89-49
UNE publication id
une:22744
Abstract
Pigeons responded in a concurrent-chains procedure in which terminal-link reinforcer variables were changed unpredictably across sessions. In Experiment 1, the terminal-link schedules were fixed-interval (FI) 8 s and FI 16 s, and the reinforcer magnitudes were 2 s and 4 s. In Experiment 2 the probability of reinforcement (100% or 50%) was varied with immediacy and magnitude. Multiple-regression analyses showed that pigeons' initial-link response allocation was determined by current-session reinforcer variables, similar to previous studies which have varied only immediacy (Grace, Bragason, & McLean, 2003). Sensitivity coefficients were positive and statistically significant for all reinforcer variables in both experiments. Analyses of responding within individual sessions showed that final levels of preference for dominated sessions, in which all reinforcer variables favored the same terminal link, were more extreme than for tradeoff sessions in which at least one reinforcer variable favored each alternative. This result implies that response allocation was determined by multiple reinforcer variables within individual sessions, consistent with the concatenated matching law. However, in Experiment 2, there was a nonlinear (sigmoidal) relationship between response allocation and relative value, which suggests the possibility that reinforcer variables may interact during acquisition, contrary to the matching law.
Link
Citation
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 89(1), p. 49-69
ISSN
1938-3711
0022-5002
Start page
49
End page
69

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