Break-and-run performance on a two-manipulandum fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement

Each of four pigeons was exposed first to a standard fixed-interval schedule. With the fixed-interval duration held constant, the schedule was changed to a two-manipulandum fixed-interval schedule in which the pigeon was required to turn on the FI key in every time interval by making a response on a second key, the start key. These manipulations were carried out under four different fixed-interval durations ranging from 30 to 240 s, and resulting performances on both schedules were compared. The two-manipulandum fixed-interval schedule produced break-and-run pattern of responding rather than scalloping. The pigeons pecked once on the start key after pause, and then emitted a high and constant rate of responding on the FI key immediately after the FI key went on. The post-reinforcement pause increased as a negatively accelerated function of fixed-interval duration on the standard schedule, but in contrast, the pause occupied a constant proportion of fixed-interval duration on the two-manipulandum fixed-interval schedule. One set of non-temporal factors not commonly shared by the schedules could be attributed to the difference in pattern of responding as well as pause/interval relation

Acoustics · Combinatorics · Constant (computer programming) · Duration (music) · Interval (graph theory) · Key (lock) · Physics · Reinforcement · Schedule · Statistics · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills · Computer Science · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology