Fixed-ratio pausing: Joint effects of past reinforcer magnitude and stimuli correlated with upcoming magnitude.
Post-reinforcement pausing reflects both the size of the just-delivered reinforcer and stimuli that signal the size of the next reinforcer.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers worked with pigeons on fixed-ratio schedules. They wanted to see how two things change the pause right after reinforcement. One was the size of the reinforcer the bird just got. The other was a light that told the bird how big the next reinforcer would be.
They ran many short sessions. After each ratio, they noted how long the bird waited before starting again. They switched the past and future reinforcer sizes to watch the pause stretch or shrink.
What they found
Big reinforcers made the birds pause longer. A signal that a big reinforcer was coming made the pause shorter. When both happened together, the effects mixed: the past reinforcer and the future cue pulled the pause in opposite directions.
The pause was not just about what happened, but also about what was coming next.
How this fits with other research
Cashon et al. (2013) saw the same tool—reinforcer size—do the opposite. Bigger rewards cut behavioral variability instead of stretching pauses. The difference is the task: timing versus variety. Same knob, different lever.
Bird et al. (2011) and Sayers et al. (1995) moved the signaling idea into memory games. They showed that a cue for large reward can hurt matching accuracy. Again, the signal helps in one place and hurts in another.
Killeen (1969) set the baseline by showing pausing cares about schedule design. Jones et al. (1992) added magnitude and signals on top of that groundwork.
Why it matters
Your client’s pause after reinforcement is talking. If the last reinforcer was big, expect a longer break. If a cue promises something big next, the break may shorten. Watch for these pushes and pulls in your session data. You can adjust reinforcer size or add neutral cues to keep the pace you want.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Pigeons responded on fixed-ratio schedules ending in small or large reinforcers (grain presentations of different duration) interspersed within each session. In mixed-schedule conditions, the response key was lit with a single color throughout the session, and pausing was directly related to the past reinforcer (longer pauses after large reinforcers than after small ones). In multiple-schedule conditions, different colors accompanied the ratios ending in small and large reinforcers, and pausing was affected by the upcoming reinforcer as well as the past one. Pauses were shorter before large reinforcers than before small ones, but they continued to be longer after large reinforcers than after small ones. The influence of the past reinforcer was modulated by the magnitude of the upcoming reinforcer; in the presence of the stimulus before the small reinforcer, the effect of the past reinforcer was enhanced relative to its effect in the stimulus before the large reinforcer. These results show that pausing between ratios is jointly determined by two competing factors: past conditions of reinforcement and stimuli correlated with upcoming conditions.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1992 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1992.57-33