title: Choice between contingencies of variation: effects of the requirement of variation upon preference.
abstract: The present study investigated whether choices between contingencies of variation are affected by the degree of variability required. For such, five pigeons were exposed to a concurrent chain schedule. In the initial links, responses in one key initiated the terminal link with the most stringent variation requirement while responses in the other key initiated the terminal link with the least stringent variation requirement. In both terminal links, four-responses sequences were reinforced according to a variation criterion, which favored less frequent and less recent sequences. The probability of reinforcement in the terminal link with the least stringent criterion was manipulated in order to generate similar percentage and rate of reinforcers in both terminal links. Choices for the terminal link with the least stringent criterion were more frequent than choices for the terminal link with the most stringent criterion. It is possible that situations that demand lower levels of behavior variability are chosen due to the lower response cost correlated to those situations.
authors.affiliation: Depto. de Processos Psicológicos Básicos, Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Caixa Postal 4500 - 70.910-900 Brasília, DF, Brazil. thaissaneves@gmail.com
authors.forename: Thaissa N R
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Pontes
authors.forename: Josele
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Abreu-Rodrigues
authors.forename: Alessandra S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Souza
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D010856:Columbidae; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology