Abstract
Pigeons were exposed to a series of cyclic-interval food reinforcement schedules in which each cycle comprised 12 1-min intervals followed by 2 2-min intervals, 2 6-min intervals, or 6 6-min intervals. Response rate was higher and postfood pause shorter in the long (2- or 6-min) than in the short (1-min) intervals. Response rate decreased and pause generally increased across successive 2-min intervals, but response rate increased and pause generally decreased across successive 6-min intervals. Performance in the 2-min intervals is consistent with a temporal discrimination account, but performance in the 6-min intervals supports earlier suggestions that some other factor (response “momentum”) may be involved when the long intervals are sufficiently longer than the short.
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The research reported here is based on a Master’s thesis submitted to Duke University by the first author under the direction of the second author. It was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Duke University, J. E. R. Staddon, principal investigator, and by a Biomedical Sciences Support Grant from Duke University to J. E. Kello. We thank Nancy K. Innis for assistance with the experiments and Janice Frank and Bettie C. Starr for critical comments on the manuscript.
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Kello, J.E., Staddon, J.E.R. Control of long-interval performance on mixed cyclic-interval schedules. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 4, 1–4 (1974). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334173
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334173