Lieving, G.A., Reilly, M.P. & Lattal, K.A. (2006).
Disruption of responding maintained by conditioned reinforcement: alterations in response–conditioned reinforcer relations.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 86, 197-209.
An observing procedure was used to investigate the effects of alterations in response-conditioned-reinforcer
relations on observing. Pigeons responded to produce schedule-correlated stimuli paired with the availability
of food or extinction. The contingency between observing responses and conditioned reinforcement was altered in
three experiments. In Experiment 1, after a contingency was established in baseline between the observing response
and conditioned reinforcement, it was removed and the schedule-correlated stimuli were presented independently of
responding according to a variable-time schedule. The variable-time schedule was constructed such that the rate
of stimulus presentations was yoked from baseline. The removal of the observing contingency reliably reduced
rates of observing. In Experiment 2, resetting delays to conditioned reinforcement were imposed between observing
responses and the schedule-correlated stimuli they produced. Delay values of 0, 0.5, 1, 5, and 10 s were examined.
Rates of observing varied inversely as a function of delay value. In Experiment 3, signaled and unsignaled
resetting delays between observing responses and schedule-correlated stimuli were compared. Baseline rates of
observing were decreased less by signaled delays than by unsignaled delays. Disruptions in
response-conditioned-reinforcer relations produce similar behavioral effects to those found with primary
reinforcement..
Key words: observing, conditioned reinforcement, response-reinforcer relations, treadle press, key peck, pigeon