Preference for mixed-interval versus fixed-interval schedules

Abstract

Pigeons were trained on a two-link concurrent chain schedule in which responses on two keys were reinforced according to independent variable-interval schedules by the production of a change in key color. Further responses on the key on which the stimulus change had been produced gave a single food reinforcement and a return to concurrent variable-interval conditions. On one key the terminal link was a two-valued mixed-interval schedule, while on the other, the terminal link was a fixed-interval schedule. When the mixed-interval values were kept constant and the fixed-interval values varied, relative response rates in the initial concurrent links matched relative reinforcement rates in the terminal links when these were computed from cubic transformations of the reciprocals of the intervals comprising the terminal link schedules.