Temporal context, preference, and resistance to change.
Longer waits before the good stuff weaken both preference and staying power under disruption.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team used concurrent-chain schedules to test how time affects choice. Subjects first picked between two initial links. Each link led to a terminal link that paid off at a different rate.
The researchers made the initial links longer in some conditions. They then added a mild disruption to see which terminal link the subjects stuck with. The goal was to see if longer waits weaken both preference and staying power.
What they found
Longer initial links cut both preference and resistance to change for the richer terminal link. In plain words, making people wait longer before the good stuff made them less likely to pick it and less likely to stick with it when things got tough.
The results matched the authors’ prediction from behavioral momentum theory. Time context, not just payoff size, shapes how strongly we defend a choice.
How this fits with other research
Joyce et al. (1988) showed that sensitivity to payoff ratio peaks once the shorter initial link passes 32 s. Hattier et al. (2011) used similar timing but added a disruption probe, proving the same time window also weakens resistance to change.
Malone (1976) found that unequal initial links can flip preference in ways the simple matching law misses. The new study keeps terminal payoffs constant and still finds a drop in both preference and staying power, showing the effect is about time, not payoff math.
Soreth et al. (2009) showed that a higher chance of quick reinforcement boosts preference for variable schedules. Hattier et al. (2011) flip the coin: longer forced waits before reinforcement reduce preference and staying power. Together they show that timing on both ends of the chain matters.
Why it matters
When you run preference assessments or token boards, remember that wait time is a variable. Longer waits before the big reinforcer can quietly erode both choice and staying power. If you see a client drifting from a once-favored task, check the temporal context, not just the payoff size. Try shortening the initial links or adding quicker tokens to rebuild momentum.
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Shorten the entry phase of your token board by one token and watch if the client sticks with the rich side longer during a mild distraction.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
According to behavioral momentum theory, preference and relative resistance to change in concurrent-chains schedules are correlated and reflect the relative conditioned value of discriminative stimuli. In the present study, we explore the generality of this relation by manipulating the temporal context within a concurrent-chains procedure through changes in the duration of the initial links. Consistent with previous findings, preference for a richer terminal link was less extreme with longer initial links across three experiments with pigeons. In Experiment 1, relative resistance to change and preference were related inversely when responding was disrupted with response-independent food presentations during initial links, replicating a previous finding with rats. However, more food was presented with longer initial links, confounding the disrupter and initial-link duration. In Experiment 2, presession feeding was used instead and eliminated the negative relation between relative resistance to change and preference, but relative resistance to change was not sensitive to relative terminal-link reinforcement rates. In Experiment 3, with more extreme relative terminal-link reinforcement rates, increasing initial-link duration similarly decreased preference and relative resistance to change for the richer terminal link. Thus, when conditions of disruption are equal and assessed under the appropriate reinforcement conditions, changes in temporal context impact relative resistance to change and preference similarly.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2011 · doi:10.1901/jeab.2011.96-191