A temporal limit on the effect of future food on current performance in an analogue of foraging and welfare.
Food promised more than an hour away does not act as reinforcement for current behavior.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Rats pressed a lever for food on a progressive-ratio schedule.
The twist: some rats knew they would get extra food 1, 4, 8, or 23 hours later.
Researchers watched if this future food changed how hard the rats worked right now.
What they found
The extra food coming later had zero effect on current lever pressing.
Only rats that ate right before the session slowed down.
Delays longer than one hour simply did not count as reinforcement.
How this fits with other research
Buskist et al. (1988) later showed pigeons could bridge short delays up to 9 seconds with a quick signal.
That study extends the boundary by proving very brief delays still work if you add a cue.
Solnick et al. (1977) had already shown that matching behavior breaks when schedules change too fast.
Together, these papers draw a clear line: seconds can matter, hours do not.
Why it matters
If you promise a big reward after school, it will not help the child work harder during the morning session.
Deliver the reinforcer within the same activity block, or pair it with an immediate bridge like praise or tokens.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Rats obtained access to food twice each 24-hour period. The first session was a work session in which food was available on a progressive-ratio schedule. During the second session, which occurred between 1 and 23 hours after the work session, food was freely available up to a fixed total intake each 24 hours. The situation resembled elements of several real world circumstances, including the choice between continuing to forage in a rapidly depleting patch and waiting for a better patch, and between working now and receiving a guaranteed income later. The purpose of the experiment was to explore the time period over which future access to reward could affect current responding. Contrary to what might be expected from recent theorizing, anticipation of future food delayed by an hour or more after the start of the work session had no effect on current performance. Food intake was high and constant during work sessions except for a prefeeding effect that occurred when the free session closely preceded the next day's work session. Also, an increase in the difficulty of the work schedule increased the amount of work and the maximum price paid for food as if the work session were the only time food was available. The results indicate the importance of considering temporal limits in theories that require animals to integrate input over time to determine the allocation of resources among alternatives.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1984 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1984.41-117