Abstract
Rat and pigeon data that had been collected in three separate laboratories were examined with reference to the effects on fixed-ratio behavior of either delaying the delivery of a scheduled reinforcer and/or varying the size of the ratio requirement. All such effects were reflected as changes in the duration of the interval (the preratio pause) that intervened between delivery of a reinforcer and commencement of responding for the next one. Although there was considerable variability in the absolute values obtained for the functions, in all cases, and for each individual subject, the relationship between these independent variables and durations of the preratio pause was well described by a power function. This finding is consonant with a previously offered suggestion that power functions provide a useful measurement of response strength for latency-type data.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barowsky, E. I., & Mintz, D. E. The effects of time-out duration during fixed-ratio reinforcement. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 1978, 11, 215–218.
Bullock, M. E., & Richards, R. W. Disruption of fixed-ratio performance as a function of reinforcement delay. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 1973, 1, 49–52.
Crossman, E. K., Heaps, R. S., Nunes, D. L., & Alferink, L. A. The effect of number of responses on pause length with temporal variables controlled. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1974, 22, 115–120.
DeVilliers, P. A., & Herrnstein, R. J. Toward a law of response strength. Psychological Bulletin, 1977, 83, 1131–1153.
Felton, M., & Lyon, D. The post-reinforcement pause. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1966, 9, 131–134.
Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. Schedules of reinforcement. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957.
Guilford, J. R. Psychometric methods. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1954.
Inman, D. P., & Cheney, C. D. Functional variables in fixed-ratio pausing with rabbits. Psychological Record, 1974, 24, 193–202.
Laursen, A. M. Post-reinforcement pauses and response rate of monkeys on a two-hand fixed-ratio schedule. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1972, 17, 85–94.
Meunier, G. R., & Starratt, C. On the magnitude of reinforcement and fixed-ratio behavior. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 1979, 13, 355–356.
Morgan, M. J. Fixed-ratio performance under conditions of delayed reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analvsis of Behavior, 1972, 17, 95–98.
Painton, S. W., Cullinan, W. L., & Mencke, E. O. Individual pitch functions and pitch-duration cross-dimensional matching. Perception & Psychophysics, 1977, 21, 469–476.
Powell, R. W. The effect of reinforcement magnitude upon responding under fixed-ratio schedules. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1969, 12, 605–608.
Powell, R. W., & Curley, M. Instinctive drift in nondomesticated rodents. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 1976, 8, 175–178.
Schmidt-Nielson, K. Locomotion: Energy cost of swimming, flying and running. Science, 1972, 177, 222–228.
Sidman, M., & Stebbins, W. Satiation effects under fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1959, 47, 114–116.
Siegel, S. Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
Stevens, J. C., & Guirao, N. Individual loudness functions. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1964, 36, 2210–2213.
Stubbs, D. A., Pliskoff, S. S., & Reid, H. M. Concurrent schedules: A quantitative relation between changeover behavior and its consequences. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1977, 25, 85–96.
Todd, G. E., & Cogan, D. C. Selected schedules of reinforcement in the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus). Animal Learning & Behavior, 1978, 6, 429–434.
Topping, J. S., Johnson, D. L., & McGlynn, F. D. Effects of delayed reinforcement and FR size on pre-ratio pausing. Psychological Reports, 1973, 32, 1925–1928.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported in part by a grant from the Ball State University Office of Research. Thanks are due to Ed Crossman for generously supplying raw data and to Robert E. Hill, Jr. for statistical help.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Meunier, G.F., Starratt, C. & Sergio, J. Quantification of pausing on fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 14, 340–342 (1979). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329472
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329472