The concurrent reinforcement of two interresponse times: the relative frequency of an interresponse time equals its relative harmonic length

Abstract

The relative lengths of two concurrently reinforced interresponse times were varied in an experiment in which three pigeons obtained food by pecking on a single key. Visual discriminative stimuli accompanied the two time intervals in which reinforcements were scheduled according to a one-minute variable-interval. The steady-state relative frequency of an interresponse time approximately equalled the complement of its relative length, that is, its relative harmonic length. Thus, lengths of interresponse times and delays of reinforcement have the same effect on the relative frequencies of interresponse times and choices in one-key and two-key concurrent variable-interval schedules, respectively. A second experiment generalized further the functional equivalence between the effects of these one-key and two-key concurrent schedules by revealing that the usual matching-to-relative-immediacy in two-key concurrent schedules is undisturbed if reinforcement depends upon the occurrence of a response at the end of the delay interval, as it does in the one-key schedules. The results of both experiments are consistent with a quantitative theory of concurrent operant behavior.