title: The value hypothesis and acquisition of preference in concurrent chains.
abstract: Experiment 1 compared the acquisition of initial- and terminal-link responding in concurrent chains. The terminal-link schedules were fixed interval (FI) 10 sec and FI 20 sec, but some presentations were analogous to no-food trials in the peak procedure, lasting 60 sec with no reinforcement delivery. Pigeons completed a series of reversals in which the schedules signaled by the terminal-link stimuli (red and green on the center key) were changed. Acquisition of temporal control of terminal-link responding (as measured by peak location on no-food trials) was more rapid than acquisition of preference in the initial links. Experiment 2 compared acquisition in concurrent chains, using the typical procedure in which the terminal-link schedules are changed with a novel arrangement in which the initial-link key assignments were changed while the terminal-link schedules remained the same. Acquisition of preference was faster in the latter condition, in which the terminal-link stimulus-reinforcer relations were preserved. These experiments provide the first acquisition data that support the view that initial-link preference is determined by the values of the terminal-link stimuli.
authors.affiliation: University of Canterbury, Department of Psychology, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. r.grace@psyc.canterbury.ac.nz
authors.forename: Randolph C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Grace
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003118:Color Perception; D010856:Columbidae; D011939:Mental Recall; D009042:Motivation; D009949:Orientation; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012193:Reversal Learning