Collateral responding during differential reinforcement of low rates

Abstract

Two pigeons were trained to peck either of two response keys for food, under two different variable-interval schedules. When responding stabilized, the schedule on the left key (reinforcement-key) was changed to a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rates schedule, and responses on the right key (extinction-key) were no longer reinforced. The mean interresponse time of responses on the reinforcement-key approximated the temporal requirement of the reinforcement schedule on that key. Collateral responding on the extinction-key was maintained by one of the birds. A "run" of these collateral responses was defined as a sequence of responses on the extinction-key occurring between two responses on the reinforcement-key. For this one bird, collateral behavior, measured by mean time per run and mean number of responses per run, was an increasing function of the temporal requirements of the reinforcement schedule on the reinforcement key, and it was strongly positively correlated with the mean interresponse time of responses on the reinforcement-key. However, from an analysis of the results, the collateral behavior did not appear to have mediated the temporal spacing of responses on the reinforcement-key.