Abstract
Autoshaping procedures with pigeons were used to assess the susceptibility of unconditioned response (UR) activity to Pavlovian relations between stimulus and reinforcer events. Foodpeck latency (a measure of UR activity) was investigated as a function of the interval between stimulus (keylight) and reinforcer (grain) presentations, and of the stimulus-reinforcer contingency, that is, the conditional probabilities of reinforcer delivery in the presence and absence of the stimulus. Four experiments indicated that food-peck latency was sensitive to both manipulations. Generally, conditions that led to higher keypeck rates were associated with shorter latencies. Thus, UR potentiation was demonstrated. However, when the bird’s location prior to grain delivery was fixed by imposing a keypeck-reinforcer contingency, UR potentiation vanished; it then reappeared when the location constraint was removed. Visual observations supported the conclusion that food-peck latency effects were mediated by approach/withdrawal tendencies generated by the stimulus-reinforcer relation. Implications of these results for expectancy theory are discussed.
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This research was supported by PSC/BHE Grant 12381 and by NIH Grant RR07064 awarded to the first author.
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Brown, B.L., Coleman, D.A. & Elefant, S. Consummatory response latency and the stimulus-reinforcer relation in autoshaping. Animal Learning & Behavior 11, 447–459 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199801
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199801