title: Reinforced behavioral variability: Working towards an understanding of its behavioral mechanisms.
abstract: There is disagreement about how to characterize the environment-behavior relations involved in the reinforcement of behavioral variability. The present research examined some of these issues using food-maintained, 4-peck sequences in pigeons. Experiment 1 evaluated the claim that behavioral variability is not reinforced directly but, rather, is the byproduct of changing over within sequences. Considerably higher levels of behavioral variation occurred under a relative-frequency threshold contingency than under a contingency that required a changeover but not variability per se. These results are consistent with the argument that behavioral variability is reinforced directly. Experiment 2 assessed the effects on variation levels of manipulating inter-trial and inter-response intervals. Variability increased with longer inter-response intervals but not with longer inter-trial intervals. These results are consistent with multiple explanations, including the notion that remembering past behavior interferes with the emission of reinforced variation. Consequently, Experiment 3 examined more directly the relation between remembering and reinforced variation. Variation levels were not affected by a concurrent contingency that encouraged pigeons to remember their past behavior. The implications of this research are presented in the context of working towards an understanding of the environment-behavior relations involved in the reinforcement of behavioral variability.
authors.affiliation: College of Charleston.
authors.forename: Adam H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Doughty
authors.affiliation: College of Charleston.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galizio
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D001245:Association Learning; D010856:Columbidae; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012691:Serial Learning
keywords: behavioral variability; key peck; operant variability; pigeon; reinforced variability; response sequence