title: Human sensitivity to reinforcement feedback functions.
abstract: Two experiments investigated human sensitivity to the temporally extended aspects of reinforcement schedules. Experiment 1 investigated human sensitivity to the extended and local aspects of three reinforcement schedules: variable ratio (VR), variable interval (VI), and variable-interval-plus-linear-feedback (VI+) schedules. Experiment 2 investigated this sensitivity on two reinforcement schedules: VI and VI+ schedules. In both experiments, there was evidence of sensitivity to the temporally extended aspects of the schedule: There were differences between the response rate on the VI+ and yoked-VI schedules, but no statistical difference in rates of response between the VR and VI+ schedules. The VI+ versus VI difference was much more pronounced when a lower response force needed to depress a lever was used. These results suggest that human subjects do show some sensitivity to temporally extended aspects of schedules of reinforcement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales. p.reed@swansea.ac.uk
authors.forename: Phil
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reed
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology