Abstract
According to the relative proximity principle, a response measure should vary monotonically with the relative amount of time elapsed in an interreinforcement interval. Average response rate on fixed-interval schedules does increase monotonically with relative time, but response rate is nonmonotonically related to relative elapsed time on conj FT FR1 schedules. The present paper shows that certain characteristics of the postreinforcement pause distribution are consistent with the relative proximity principle on both fixed-interval and conjunctive schedules: The probability of terminating the postreinforcement pause, given the opportunity, increases monotonically with relative time in the interreinforcement interval on both types duration by relative time in an interreinforcement interval seems to hold over a wider range of conditions than does the control over average response rate by relative proximity.
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This research was supported by Grant NIMH (MH21368-01).
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Shull, R.L., Brownstein, A.J. The relative proximity principle and the postreinforcement pause. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 5, 129–131 (1975). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333223
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333223