ABSTRACT
Four rats responded on one-minute variable-interval schedules with several variations in peak-force of response required for food reinforcement. Measures of peak force and rate were taken for the responses, which were the downward exertions of force against a static force-transducing operandum. The analysis distinguished responses, a generic class of measured behavior, from criterion responses, an operationally specified subclass required for reinforcement. Absolute rate of response showed no systematic change, but the rate of responses meeting a newly required criterion of peak-force invariably increased through changes in the absolute rate of response, the relative-frequency distributions of peak force, or some combination of both. The relative frequency of responses meeting an elevated force criterion during variable-interval reinforcement exceeded that maintained with the same criterion with continuous reinforcement. The requirement of more effortful responding for reinforcement does not necessarily reduce response rate. Conformity of the behavior to the requirement for reinforcement is the salient effect.
ABSTRACT
Pigeons were maintained on a fixed ratio (FR 9) schedule of reinforcement for correct matching-to-sample responses. Included in the test situation was a vertical array of lights, illuminated in relation to the successive steps of the fixed ratio. All five subjects showed regular decrements in matching errors across the sequence of unreinforced responses within the ratio cycle. In the form of a randomly introduced probe, the stimulus situation (array of lights) appropriate to having seven of the FR 9 steps already completed was occasionally introduced at the beginning of an FR cycle. Reinforcement followed the illumination of the two remaining lights by two correct matches. The number of errors in this probe condition was sharply lower than the errors characteristic of the first two steps of the basic FR 9.
