Abstract
The effects of prefeeding were studied using pigeons reinforced on either plain fixed ratio (FR) 64 or chained FR 32, FR 32 schedules of reinforcement. It was found that (1) the response rate increased as a function of the number of responses completed in the ratio, (2) the rate was higher for the chained FR group, (3) the rates decreased as a function of the amount prefed, (4) the latency of the first response in the ratio increased as a function of the amount prefed, (5) the prefeeding had a much greater effect on the rate in the first part than in the later part of the fixed ratio sequence, and (6) the prefeeding had a much greater effect on the response latency than on the response rate. It was concluded that the multiplicative rule of the effect of feeding schedules is inapplicable to behavior changes resulting from different segments of a single schedule of reinforcement.
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References
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This research was supported by Public Health Service Grant MH10755-01.
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Malott, R.W. The effects of prefeeding in plain and chained fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement. Psychon Sci 4, 285–286 (1966). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03342298
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03342298