Disruption of responding maintained by conditioned reinforcement: alterations in response-conditioned-reinforcer relations

Abstract

An observing procedure was used to investigate the effects of alterations in response-conditioned-reinforcer relations on observing. Pigeons responded to produce schedule-correlated stimuli paired with the availability of food or extinction. The contingency between observing responses and conditioned reinforcement was altered in three experiments. In Experiment 1, after a contingency was established in baseline between the observing response and conditioned reinforcement, it was removed and the schedule-correlated stimuli were presented independently of responding according to a variable-time schedule. The variable-time schedule was constructed such that the rate of stimulus presentations was yoked from baseline. The removal of the observing contingency reliably reduced rates of observing. In Experiment 2, resetting delays to conditioned reinforcement were imposed between observing responses and the schedule-correlated stimuli they produced. Delay values of 0, 0.5, 1, 5, and 10 s were examined. Rates of observing varied inversely as a function of delay value. In Experiment 3, signaled and unsignaled resetting delays between observing responses and schedule-correlated stimuli were compared. Baseline rates of observing were decreased less by signaled delays than by unsignaled delays. Disruptions in response-conditioned-reinforcer relations produce similar behavioral effects to those found with primary reinforcement.

Fig 1. Overall observing rates (top three panels) separated by multiple schedule component (middle three panels), and food-key response rates (bottom three panels) during each of the final six sessions of each condition of Experiment 1.

The condition headings refer to the schedule of conditioned reinforcement in effect. The filled circles denote response rates during the VI component of the multiple VI Ext schedule, and empty circles denote response rates during the Ext component. Dissociated rates of observing (middle) and food key (bottom) responding were lost for the sixth session in the third condition and the fifth session of the third condition for Pigeons 200 and 166, respectively.

Fig 2. Overall observing rates (top three panels) separated by multiple schedule component (middle three panels), and food key response rates (bottom three panels) during the final six sessions of the conditions of Experiment 2.

Dissociated response rates are shown only for the first four conditions. The condition headings refer to the DRO value in effect for the tandem FR 1 DRO x schedule of conditioned reinforcement. The heading EXT refers to the condition during which the observing contingency was removed. The filled circles denote response rates during the VI component of the multiple VI Ext schedule, and empty circles denote response rates during the Ext component. The data for dissociated rates of observing (middle) and food key (top) responding were lost for the fifth session in the first condition for Pigeon 114.

Fig 3. Observing responses per min across the final six sessions of each condition of Experiment 3.

Fig 4. Observing responses per min from Figure 4, expressed as a proportion of the immediately preceding baseline (i.e., no delay).