Department
Psychology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1993
Abstract
The ability of stimuli correlated with successive periods in a fixed interfood interval to support a response that produced or removed them was examined using pigeons. The degree to which those correlated stimuli elicited directed key pecks was also obtained. Stimuli early in the interval functioned as negative reinforcers, and stimuli late in the interval functioned as positive reinforcers. Stimuli correlated with successively later portions of the second half of the interval supported successively higher rates of elicited pecking and, with the exception of the final stimulus, supported successively higher rates of stimulus production. Stimuli in successively earlier portions of the first half of the interval supported successively higher rates of correlated-stimulus removal. This effect occurred in spite of the addition of a conjoint variable-interval dependency for food. An ogive fit to the mean normalized response distributions resulted in r2s demonstrating that most of the variance in the temporal organization of the behavior was accounted for. The findings were taken to indicate that fixed interfood intervals establish bipolar control.
Recommended Citation
Palya, William L., "Bipolar Control in Fixed Interfood Intervals" (1993). Research, Publications & Creative Work. 76.
https://digitalcommons.jsu.edu/fac_res/76
Publication/Presentation Information
Palya, W.L. (September 1993) "Bipolar Control in Fixed Interfood Intervals." Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 60 (2): 345-359.