Abstract
Conditioned reinforcement interpretations of observing behavior predict that certain kinds of temporal information, but not spatial information, will reinforce observing. In a free operant observing experiment, pigeons pecked the left and right keys of a three-key panel to produce intermittent food deliveries. Pecks to the center key (observing responses) produced stimulus displays providing some birds with spatial information (which side key to peck) and other birds with temporal information (which component of a mixed variable-interval/extinction schedule was operating). Four of the six birds that could produce temporal information did so, whereas none of the six birds that could produce spatial information did so. The “information hypothesis” of observing apparently cannot explain this result.
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Dinsmoor, J. A. The reinforcement of observing. Unpublished manuscript, 1980.
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Bowe, C.A., Dinsmoor, J.A. Temporal vs. spatial information as a reinforcer of observing. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 17, 33–36 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333659
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333659