Lopez, F. & Menez, M. (2005).
Effects of reinforcement history on response rate and response pattern in
periodic reinforcement.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 83, 221-
241.
Several researchers have suggested that conditioning history may have long-term
effects on fixed-interval performances of rats. To test this idea and to
identify possible factors involved in temporal control development, groups of
rats initially were exposed to different reinforcement schedules: continuous,
fixed-time, and random-interval. Afterwards, half of the rats in each group were
studied on a fixed-interval 30-s schedule of reinforcement and the other half on
a fixed-interval 90-s schedule of reinforcement. No evidence of long-term
effects attributable to conditioning history on either response output or
response patterning was found; history effects were transitory. Different
tendencies in trajectory across sessions were observed for measures of early and
late responding within the interreinforcer interval, suggesting that temporal
control is the result of two separate processes: one involved in response output
and the other in time allocation of responding and not responding.
Key words: fixed interval, schedule history, temporal control, lever press,
rats