Choice

Question 1

Concurrent Schedules of Reinforcement

Answer 1

Two or more schedules simultaneously-available, independent schedules

Question 2

DV in concurrent schedules research

Proportion of responses allocated to alternative =

Answer 2

Responses on that alternative / Total responses

Question 3

Choice between ratio schedules:
Exclusive preference for the smaller ratio

FR50 (green) OR FR1000 (red)
FR53 (green) OR FR50 (red)

Answer 3

Pigeon will pick the green one because of the higher reinforcement rate

Pigeon will pick the red one because of the higher reinforcement rate

Question 4

VI versus FI

Choice research typically uses VI schedules because…

Answer 4

they produce steady, high rates of responding

Question 5

Choice between interval schedules: 
how do you get the most reinforcement in this situation?
VI 30s (green) OR VI 90s (red)

Exclusively preferring VI 30 s gives you about 120 reinforcers per hour
Exclusively preferring VI 90 s gives you about 40 reinforcers per hour
BUT if you switch back and forward you can get all or most of the 160 reinforcers per hour that are available

Answer 5

Why do individuals switch frequently on concurrent interval schedules?
Respond on green for 2 minutes
Reinforcer becomes available on red
Switch to red: reinforcement!

Question 6

Frequent switching on concurrent interval schedules
Response class is defined empirically
Experimenter may intend to reinforce each response alternative (the two keys) AND NO OTHER RESPONSES
BUT...

Answer 6

switching is an operant response that can be reinforced too.

Question 7

Frequent switching on concurrent interval schedules
Problems:
Main DV is close to 0.5 for all pairs of schedules
Therefore we are back to the problems we had with concurrent ratio schedules- we don’t learn much about preference

Answer 7

NOTE:
If have a lot of switching because it is reinforced, get a reinforcer after switching - the proportion of the responses on each alternative are 0.5, because spend half of time on each

Question 8

Frequent switching on concurrent interval schedules

Solution:

Answer 8

Changeover delay (COD)
After the subject has switched no reinforcer deliveries for some period of time
Prevents adventitious reinforcement for switching

Question 9

Choice between interval schedules: with COD

changeover delays reduce…

Answer 9

switching

For a short period of time no reinforcement while switching between green and red
Removes the contingency between switching and immediate reinforcement

Question 10

The Matching Law
B1/(B1 + B2) = R1/(R1 + R2)

B1 = Number of responses on alternative 1 
B2 =  Number of responses on alternative 2 

R1 = Number of reinforcers from alternative 1
R2 = Number of reinforcers from alternative 2

Answer 10

Proportion of responses allocated to B1 (DV) = Proportion of reinforcers produced by B1 (IV)

Question 11

Perfect matching =

Answer 11

data lie on a diagonal line with a slope of 1.0

Question 12

The matching law is about…

B1 : B2 : B1/(B1 + B2) : Predicted R1/(R1+R2)
400 : 100 : 0.8 :0.8 
50 : 12.5 :0.8 :0.8 
5000 : 1250 : 0.8 : 0.8 
0.1 : 0.025 :0.8 :0.8

Answer 12

RELATIVE rates of reinforcers and responses

Question 13

What is the difference between a concurrent schedule and a multiple schedule?

Answer 13

In a concurrent schedule, the response alternatives are available at the same time, while in a multiple schedule they are available at different times