RAPID ACQUISITION OF PREFERENCE IN CONCURRENT CHAINS

Randolph C. Grace · Orn Bragason · Anthony P. McLean

52 citations0/0 files storedJournal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

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Behavioral and Psychological Studies Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Abstract

We report two experiments using a concurrent-chains procedure in which one terminal-link schedule was fixed-interval 8 s and the alternative schedule changed randomly from day to day. In Experiment 1, the alternative schedule varied between 4 s and 16 s according to a pseudorandom binary sequence similar to the one used by Hunter and Davison (1985). Similar to results with concurrent schedules, pigeons' response allocation in the initial link was most sensitive to the schedules arranged in the current session, although some effect of prior history was evident. Overall sensitivity was lower than for comparable data from steady-state research. In Experiment 2, a unique value between 2 s and 32 s was used for the alternative-schedule delay in each session. Sensitivity levels were similar to Experiment 1 and remained unchanged across 61 sessions of training. For all subjects, sensitivity was greater when the alternative-schedule delay was greater than 8 s compared with when it was less than 8 s. Generalized-matching plots revealed evidence of clustering of data points into two groups for some pigeons, suggesting that a process similar to a categorical discrimination may have at least partly determined response allocation. Overall, this research shows that pigeons' initial-link response allocation can adjust rapidly to frequent changes in the terminal links.

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2006RAPID ACQUISITION IN CONCURRENT CHAINS: EVIDENCE FOR A DECISION MODEL 2009CHOICE IN A VARIABLE ENVIRONMENT: DOES EVERY REINFORCER COUNT?2016Reprint of “Acquisition of choice in concurrent chains: Assessing the cumulative decision model”2009Identifying the mechanisms that generate choice and timing behavior in dynamic concurrent choice procedures 2009Sensitivity of preference to reinforcement amount depends upon the method used to manipulate amount

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