Time allocation and negative reinforcement

Abstract

Pigeons' standing on one or the other side of a chamber was reinforced with timeout from electric shock on two concurrent variable-interval schedules. For two pigeons, the ratio of time spent on the left to time spent on the right approximately matched the ratio of timeouts obtained on the left to timeouts obtained on the right. The data of two other birds deviated from this relation, although in opposite directions. Overall, the results suggest that reduction in rate of electric shock plays a role in behavioral allocation analogous to that played by rate of positive reinforcement. It appears possible to describe aversive control and positive control within the same conceptual framework-that provided by the matching relation.