Effects of Primary Reinforcement on Pigeons' Initial‐link Responding Under a Concurrent‐chains Schedule With Nondifferential Terminal Links

Ploog, Bertram O.

doi:10.1901/jeab.2001.76-75

Cited by 6 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Impaired learning about conditioned reinforcers may not, however, be detected in the acquisition of preference in concurrent chains schedules. For example, although conditioned reinforcers (i.e., terminal link stimuli) contribute to initial link preference [38], pigeons prefer an initial link leading to larger reinforcement even when the terminal links are not differentially signaled [39]. In the current study, the location of the lever associated with large reinforcement was consistent during baseline sessions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Basolateral amygdala lesions and sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude in concurrent chains schedules

Helms

Mitchell

2008

Behavioural Brain Research

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Previous studies show that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) is required for behavior to adjust when the value of a reinforcer decreases after satiation or pairing with gastric distress. This study evaluated the effect of pre-or post-training excitotoxic lesions of the BLA on changes in preference with another type of contingency change, reinforcer magnitude reversal. Rats were trained to press left and right levers during a variable-interval choice phase for 50 µl or 150 µl sucrose delivered to consistent locations after a 16-s delay. Tones were presented during the first and last 2 s of the delay to reinforcement. The tone frequency predicted the magnitude of sucrose reinforcement in baseline conditions. All groups acquired stable preference for the lever on the large (150-µl) reinforcer side. However, nose poking during the delay to large reinforcement was highly accurate (i.e., to the reinforced side) for all groups except the rats with BLA lesions induced before training, suggesting impaired control of behavior by the tone. After the acquisition of stable preference, the locations of the reinforcer magnitudes were unpredictably reversed for a single session. Pre-training lesions blunted changes in preference when the reinforcer magnitudes were reversed. Lesions induced after stable preference was acquired, but prior to reversal, did not disrupt changes in preference. The data suggest that the BLA contributes to the adaptation of choice behavior following changes in reinforcer magnitude. Impaired learning about the tone-reinforcer magnitude relationships may have disrupted discrimination of the reinforcer magnitude reversal.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Basolateral amygdala lesions and sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude in concurrent chains schedules

Helms

Mitchell

2008

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…At least procedurally, the delays of reinforcement that were studied here are analogous to the terminal-link durations of a concurrent chain, but only if the same stimulus occurs during both terminal links (see, e.g., Ploog, 2001;Williams & Fantino, 1978). Such schedules have been studied but never, to our knowledge, with repeated reversals of the schedule contingencies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serial discrimination reversal learning in pigeons as a function of intertrial interval and delay of reinforcement

Ploog

Williams

2010

Learning & Behavior

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Pigeons learned a series of reversals of a simultaneous red-green visual discrimination. Delay of reinforcement (0 vs. 2 sec) and intertrial interval (ITI; 4 vs. 40 sec) were varied across blocks of reversals. Learning was faster with 0-sec than with 2-sec delays for both ITI values and faster with 4-sec ITIs than with 40-sec ITIs for both delays. Improvement in learning across successive reversals was evident throughout the experiment, furthermore, even after more than 120 reversals. The potent effects of small differences in reinforcement delay id id f i ti t d t b i tibl ith t f h i th t tt t t provide evidence for associative accounts and appear to be incompatible with accounts of choice that attempt to encompass the effects of temporal parameters in terms of animals' timing of temporal intervals.

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“…Using a concurrent chained VI VI chained VI VI schedule, Ploog (2001) found that pigeons generally preferred longer-duration reinforcers when differential initial-link stimuli were correlated with nondifferential terminal-link stimuli with respect to reinforcer duration. Ploog suggested that reinforcer duration and not conditioned reinforcers presented in the terminal links of the concurrent-chain schedules used in the experiment were controlling response allocation in the initial links.…”

Section: Stimuli Correlated With Reinforcer Durationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Signaled Reinforcer Duration on Preference

Oliver¹

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It has been suggested that reinforcers of different durations can be made more discriminable by pairing specific stimulus conditions with different durations (Bonem & Crossman, 1988). The purpose of the current experiment was to assess the effects of signaling reinforcer duration prior to reinforcer onset on initial-link responding under a concurrent-chains schedule of reinforcement. Initial-link responding was assessed across two sets of reinforcer durations (2-vs. 6-s hopper access and 6-vs. 10-s hopper access) and conditions in which terminal-link stimuli were the same (e.g., both red) and different (e.g., white, blue, or yellow). Preference was defined as the key with the proportion of responses greater than 0.5. Preference for the longer-duration reinforcer occurred for three of four pigeons when presented as a choice between 2 s and 6 s. One of four pigeons preferred the longer duration reinforcer when presented with 6 s vs. 10 s. The inclusion of differential terminal-link stimuli did not enhance preference for the longer duration relative to conditions in which the terminal-link stimuli were undifferentiated across both sets of reinforcer durations.

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Effects of Primary Reinforcement on Pigeons' Initial‐link Responding Under a Concurrent‐chains Schedule With Nondifferential Terminal Links

Cited by 6 publications

References 32 publications

Basolateral amygdala lesions and sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude in concurrent chains schedules

Basolateral amygdala lesions and sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude in concurrent chains schedules

Serial discrimination reversal learning in pigeons as a function of intertrial interval and delay of reinforcement

The Effects of Signaled Reinforcer Duration on Preference

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