Byrne, T., Sutphin, G., & Poling, A. (1998). Acquisition, extinction, and reacquisition of responding with delayed and immediate reinforcement. Behav. Process., 43(1), 97–101.
Abstract: The present study investigated acquisition, extinction, and reacquisition of free-operant responding when rats' lever presses produced water after a resetting delay of 0, 10, 20, or 30 s. Results indicated that: (1) responding was acquired rapidly at all delays without shaping or autoshaping; (2) resistance to extinction was directly related to delay length and inversely related to intermittency of reinforcement; (3) responding acquired with delayed reinforcement recovered less rapidly from extinction, and was less efficient, than responding acquired with immediate reinforcement. Comparing these results with those of studies using discrete-trials and free-operant procedures with no reinforcement delay suggest that the specific conditions under which behavior is maintained determines, in part, the behavioral effects of delay and intermittency of reinforcement.
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Foster, T. M., Matthews, L. R., Temple, W., & Poling, A. (1997). Concurrent schedule performance in domestic goats: persistent undermatching. Behav. Process., 40(3), 231–237.
Abstract: Performance of nine domestic goats responding under concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules of food delivery was examined, with results analyzed in terms of the generalized matching equation. Substantial undermatching of response and time allocation ratios to obtained reinforcement ratios was evident. Post-reinforcement pause time ratios approximately matched obtained reinforcement ratios. Subtracting these times from total time allocation values yielded net time allocation ratios, which undermatched obtained reinforcement ratios to a greater degree than whole-session time allocation ratios. Slopes of regression lines relating behavioral outputs to environmental inputs characteristically were below 0.6, which is similar to previous findings in dairy cows tested under comparable conditions.
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Foster, T. M., Temple, W., Cameron, B., & Poling, A. (1997). Demand curves for food in hens: Similarity under fixed-ratio and progressive-ratio schedules. Behav. Process., 39(2), 177–185.
Abstract: Demand curves were generated for five domestic hens under progressive-ratio 5 schedules of food delivery and under fixed-ratio schedules of food delivery that began at fixed-ratio 5 and were incremented by 5 each session. All sessions ended after 10 consecutive minutes without a response. Although response rates at a given ratio were higher under the progressive-ratio schedule, all hens completed higher ratios under the fixed-ratio schedule. Similar, but not identical, demand curves were generated under progressive-ratio and fixed-ratio schedules. Under both schedules, consumption (reinforcers earned) decreased as cost (ratio size) increased. Data generally were well described by an equation in which elasticity of demand is constant, although an equation in which elasticity could vary accounted for slightly more of the variance.
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Poling, A., Temple, W., & Foster, T. M. (1996). The differential outcomes effect: A demonstration in domestic chickens responding under a titrating-delayed-matching-to-sample procedure. Behav. Process., 36(2), 109–115.
Abstract: The differential outcomes effect refers to the increase in speed of acquisition or terminal accuracy that occurs in discrimination training when each of two or more discriminative stimuli is correlated with a different outcome (e.g. type of reinforcer). The present study demonstrated this effect in domestic hens exposed to a titrating-delayed-matching-to-sample procedure, under which correct responses increased (and incorrect responses decreased) the delay between the offset of a sample stimulus and the onset of two comparison stimuli. Colors of key illumination (red, green) were used as sample and comparison stimuli and correct responses resulted in 1- or 4-s food deliveries. When 1-s food deliveries consistently followed correct responses to one key color and 4-s food deliveries followed correct responses to the other key color, the maximum delay reached by the hens and their overall accuracy was significantly higher than when 1- and 4-s food deliveries were randomly arranged following correct responses to both key colors. These data constitute the first demonstration of the differential outcomes effect in chickens, and in any species evaluated under a titrating-delayed-matching-to-sample procedure.
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Poling, A., Thomas, J., Hall-Johnson, E., & Picker, M. (1985). Self-control revisited: Some factors that affect autoshaped responding. Behav. Process., 10(1-2), 77–85.
Abstract: Pigeons were exposed to autoshaping procedures under which 50% of red key illuminations were followed by 9-sec food deliveries, and 50% of blue key illuminations were followed by 3-sec food deliveries. When all key illuminations were 6 sec, pigeons preferred the red stimulus. Subsequent manipulations demonstrated that preference could be shifted to the blue stimulus by either increasing the duration of the red stimulus or imposing a delay interval between the offset of that stimulus and food delivery. A final experiment demonstrated that, in two of three subjects, preference for key illuminations associated with longer, but delayed, food deliveries generally increased as the duration of all key illuminations was lengthened. These results, obtained under conditions where keypecking had no programmed consequences, are similar to those previously observed under procedures involving a positive response-food dependency.
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Robinson, T. A., Foster, T. M., Temple, W., & Poling, A. (1995). Performance of domestic hens under progressive-ratio schedules of food delivery. Behav. Process., 34(3), 233–239.
Abstract: Domestic hens were exposed to progressive-ratio 2 and progressive-ratio 10 schedules of food delivery with different initial ratios (2, 10, 20, 30, and 40). Breaking points, defined as the largest ratios completed before responding ceased for 600 consecutive seconds, were recorded under all conditions. In general, breaking points were higher under the PR 10 schedule than under the PR 2 schedule, and the value of the initial ratio did not systematically affect the breaking point. The former finding suggests that relative satiation affected breaking points in the present study, but the latter finding suggests that the primary determinant was the `price' of the reinforcer, defined in terms of the number of responses required to produce it. Breaking points were similar under conditions where initial ratios changed from session to session and under more conventional conditions, where initial ratios remained unchanged over several sessions.
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Snycerski, S., Laraway, S., & Poling, A. (2005). Response acquisition with immediate and delayed conditioned reinforcement. Behav. Process., 68(1), 1–11.
Abstract: Groups comprising eight rats initially were exposed to response-independent water deliveries, then to conditions under which a lever-press response raised an empty dipper immediately or after a resetting delay of 15, 30, or 45 s. When their performance was compared to that of control animals using a 90% confidence level, six rats in the immediate-reinforcement group met the primary criterion for response acquisition during a single 6-h session; 4, 4, and 3 did so in the 15, 30, and 45 s delay groups, respectively. Similar evidence of acquisition was obtained when a 95% confidence level was used. With a 99% confidence level, however, evidence of acquisition was not compelling. Although these data appear to provide the first demonstration of response acquisition in the absence of handshaping or autoshaping under conditions where the putative reinforcer is both conditioned and delayed, they also demonstrate that whether response acquisition occurs depends, in part, on how it is defined.
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