Effects of a Pre‐reward Stimulus on a Temporal Discrimination

Pigeons responded in a situation in which a response on key B could be followed by reinforcement if a response on key A preceded it by 10 sec. A‐to‐B responses with intervals of greater than 10 sec. duration were reinforced on a random ratio schedule. The effects of a conditioned stimulus terminating in response‐independent reinforcement were assessed against this baseline. Two levels of response‐independent reinforcement (6 or 10 sec. hopper access) and two conditioned stimulus durations (1.5 min. and 3 min.) were used. Except for the combination of the 3 min. conditioned stimulus with the 6 sec. response‐independent reinforcement, all other combinations produced a suppression of A‐to‐B responding during the conditioned stimulus. Concomitantly, the number of correct (i.e. > 10 sec.) responses, and in some cases the percentage of total responses that were correct, were reduced. All of these effects were seen most clearly using the conditioned stimulus of shorter duration

Audiology · Classical conditioning · Cognitive psychology · Conditioned response · Conditioning · Developmental psychology · Neutral stimulus · Reinforcement · Statistics · Stimulus (psychology) · Stimulus control · Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies · Animal Nutrition and Physiology · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Mathematics · Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Psychology