Pigeons ability to track changes of reinforcement duration (RD) and spacing of changes within a session, such as close (consecutive intervals) and far (each change in reinforcer duration was separated by two intervals of four seconds RD), was the focus of the study. Pigeons were exposed to two baseline conditions, one before and after experimental conditions. The four experimental conditions consisted of changes of RD and sequence (consecutive and separated) and each pigeon experienced each condition. The results indicated that tracking was directional. Specifically, when there was a decrease in reinforcer duration (i.e., four to two seconds). Pigeons readily tracked changes of reinforcer duration in the following interval, indicating one-back tracking. The implication of our study suggests that changes of RD within a session were used as a time marker for when to respond in the next interval for reinforcement.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-05032006-084854 |
| Date | 05 May 2006 |
| Creators | Donohue, Darius Dean |
| Contributors | Jennifer J. Higa |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/msword |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-05032006-084854/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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