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39th Annual Convention; Minneapolis, MN; 2013

Event Details


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Symposium #146
Effects of Delayed Reinforcement on Response Acquisition and Maintenance
Sunday, May 26, 2013
10:00 AM–11:20 AM
101 I (Convention Center)
Area: EAB; Domain: Basic Research
Chair: James E. Cook (West Virginia University)
Abstract:

Delays to reinforcement are ubiquitous in the natural environment and as one of the main parameters of reinforcement can affect both response acquisition and maintenance. As such a greater understanding of the effects of delayed reinforcement is important in broadening our knowledge of behavior. The speakers in this symposium will present some of the most recent research on the effects of delayed reinforcement. Ezra Hall will present on response acquisition and the development of temporal control on tandem fixed interval fixed time schedules. Robin Kuhn will present on the acquisition and maintenance of sequences of responses when reinforcement is delayed. Rogelio Escobar will present research on the effects of signaled delays on the maintenance of patterns of responding. James Cook will compare the effects of fixed and mixed delays to reinforcement on responding previously maintained by immediate reinforcement. The research presented in these talks will expand our knowledge of the effects of delayed reinforcement and indicate new directions for future research.

 

Response Acquisition With Delayed Reinforcement and the Development of Temporal Control of Behavior

EZRA GARTH HALL (West Virginia University), Kennon Andy Lattal (West Virginia University)
Abstract:

The development of responding without response shaping and prior training has been shown to occur under various conditions of immediate and delayed reinforcement. The current research further investigated response acquisition while simultaneously examining development of temporal control of behavior under conditions of delayed reinforcement. Three experimentally nave White Carneau pigeons are being maintained at 75% of their free feeding body weights. Pigeons were magazine trained in operant chambers with no illumination except for white hopper lights turned on during 4-s presentations of mixed grain. Sessions following magazine training last for 2 hours or until fifty 4-s hopper presentations occur according to a tandem fixed-interval fixed-time schedule. All pigeons acquired responding, two have developed positively accelerated response patterns over the course of numerous sessions and the third pigeon is showing a linear pattern of responding as of session 52. The results of the experiment thus far extend response acquisition to tandem fixed-interval fixed-time schedules of reinforcement and have allowed a more detailed look at how temporal control develops throughout the delay period under extended exposure to such conditions.

 

Sequence Acquisition and Maintenance with Resetting Delayed Reinforcement in Rats

ROBIN KUHN (Central Michigan University), John R. Smethells (Central Michigan University), Andrew T. Fox (University of Kansas), Mark P. Reilly (Central Michigan University)
Abstract:

While the effects of delays to reinforcement on acquisition of single responses are well established, little is known regarding how delays effect on the acquisition of response sequences. The results of four experiments examining acquisition of a left-right response sequence (LR) in rats are presented. Results from the first experiment, a parametric analysis of LR sequence acquisition with resetting, delayed reinforcement in 30 rats with a history of left-lever pressing, indicate that rats can acquire a LR sequence with unsignaled, resetting reinforcement delays of up to 5 s. Results of Experiment 2 extend the findings of Experiment 1 to 8 nave rats. Results from Experiment 3, suggest that maintenance of the LR sequence at increasing delays is improved when the LR sequence is acquired with a longer delay to reinforcement, and that typical delay-of-reinforcement gradients are obtained with sequences. Results from Experiment 4, conducted with 12 nave rats, show that signaled delays facilitate LR sequence acquisition, and increase resistance to extinction, relative to unsignaled delays. Taken in sum, these findings indicate that LR sequence acquisition mirrors acquisition of a single response with resetting delays to reinforcement, and highlights the reorganization of behavior due to the selective effects of delayed reinforcement.

 
The Effects of Delayed Reinforcement on Shaped Behavioral Patterns in Rats
ROGELIO ESCOBAR (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
Abstract: Fixed and variable-interval schedules of reinforcement result in distinctive temporal patterns of responding within the inter reinforcement interval. Aside from these patterns, it is also possible to shape a pattern of responding in pigeons with a schedule in which the delivery of food is contingent upon the extent to which the temporal pattern of responding within a trial conforms to a predetermined pattern. This finding was replicated in this study in three Wistar rats using 8-s trials in which a retractable lever was available. Two types of differentially-signaled trials were scheduled and, during 100 sessions, two patterns were shaped: a scalloped and a constant-response pattern. As in previous studies, the occurrence of such patterns apparently challenges the fact that response-reinforcer contiguity is an essential aspect of conditioning. In subsequent conditions, it was determined if the patterns as a whole were sensitive to the effects of delayed reinforcement. Therefore, a 4 and a 16 s signaled delays were added after the completion of the correct pattern and before reinforcer delivery. The results for the three rats support the fact that the lack of response-reinforcer contiguity notably decreases the rate of occurrence of the reinforced patterns of responding relative to immediate reinforcement.
 

Effects of Fixed and Mixed Delays on Responding

JAMES E. COOK (West Virginia University), Kennon A. Lattal (West Virginia University)
Abstract:

Delays to reinforcement are ubiquitous in the natural environment, where those delays often vary; yet most research that has examined delayed reinforcement focused only on fixed delays, and little research has examined the effects of variable delays. Nonresetting fixed and mixed delays to reinforcement were imposed on the responding of 4 pigeons previously maintained on a multiple variable-interval (VI) VI schedule of immediate reinforcement. Mixed delays consisted of two alternating delay values, the mean of which equaled the value of the fixed delay. A progressive delay procedure was used, in which delay values increased across sessions. Conditions included using unsignaled (Condition A) and signaled delays (Condition B) in which both mixed delay values changed across sessions, and Condition C involved using unsignaled delays in which one of the mixed delay values remained constant across sessions. Response rates decreased more and changes in interresponse times were greater with unsignaled than signaled delays. With unsignaled delays, changes in responding were found to be a function of the average obtained delay within each component of the multiple schedule, regardless of whether the delays were fixed or mixed, though obtained delays tended to be shorter in the mixed delay component.

 

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