Abstract
Right-lever presses by hooded rats in three groups produced reinforcers at variable-intervals that differed over five conditions. The groups differed by virtue of the constant rates of reinforcers obtained by left-lever responding—high, medium, or low. The function relating right-response rates to right-reinforcer rates was adequately described by the hyperbola proposed by Herrnstein. According to Herrnstein’s interpretation, the rate-of-change parameter (R 0) for the hyperbola represents the rate of reinforcers obtained from sources other than right-lever reinforcers. Estimates ofR 0 did not bear a direct relation to the rate of reinforcers obtained on the left, contrary to what was expected according to Herrnstein’s interpretation. There were many instances in whichR 0 estimates were smaller than the rate of left-lever reinforcers actually obtained. Such instances could not be accounted for by Herrnstein’s hyperbola unless the undermatching and bias that were found for the choice between right and left reinforcers were taken into account. We concluded that Herrnstein’s proposal that response rate can be predicted in terms of the choice between reinforcers arranged by the experimenter and reinforcers obtained from extraneous sources remains tenable if undermatching and bias are taken into account.
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This research was supported by Grant T82/205 from the University Grants Committee.
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White, K.G., McLean, A.P. & Aldiss, M.F. The context for reinforcement: Modulation of the response-reinforcer relation by concurrently available extraneous reinforcement. Animal Learning & Behavior 14, 398–404 (1986). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200085
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200085