title: Stimulus control of behavioral history.
abstract: Pigeons were exposed to two different reinforcement schedules under different stimulus conditions in each of two daily sessions separated by 6 hr (Experiments 1 and 2) or in a single session (Experiment 3). Following this, either a fixed-interval (Experiment 1) or a variable-interval schedule (Experiments 2 and 3) was effected in both stimulus conditions. In the first two experiments, exposure to fixed-ratio or differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules led to response-rate, but not pattern, differences in subsequent performance on fixed- or variable-interval schedules that persisted for up to 60 sessions. The effects of reinforcement-schedule history on fixed-interval schedule performance generally were more persistent. In Experiment 3, a history of high and low response rates in different components of a multiple schedule resulted in subsequent response-rate differences under identical variable-interval schedules. Higher response rates initially occurred in the component previously correlated with high response rates. For 3 of 4 subjects, the differences persisted for 20 or more sessions. Previous demonstrations of behavioral history effects have been confined largely to between-subject comparisons. By contrast, the present results demonstrate strong behavioral effects of schedule histories under stimulus control within individual subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown 26505-6040.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Lattal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D011939:Mental Recall; D009042:Motivation; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule