Temporal control by progressive-interval schedules of reinforcement.
Progressive-interval schedules gently stretch post-reinforcement pause time, giving you a ready-made dial for building patience.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a schedule that makes rats wait a little longer after each food pellet. They called it a progressive-interval schedule.
Each new interval was longer than the one before. The researchers watched how the rats timed their pauses after eating.
What they found
The rats stretched their post-food pause to match the growing interval. Longer interval, longer pause.
A quick switch to a variable-ratio schedule broke the pattern for a bit. When the team returned to the progressive schedule, the tidy timing came right back.
How this fits with other research
Frame et al. (1984) showed that a flashing light can signal interval length and still shape pauses. Bauman et al. (1996) removed the signal and still got clean temporal control, proving the schedule itself can do the teaching.
McSweeney et al. (1993) said pause length tracks the prior interfood interval. The new data agree: each longer step in the progressive series produced a matching stretch in pause time.
DeVellis et al. (1979) found a power-law relation under fixed intervals. The progressive schedule adds a practical twist: you can smoothly shape longer waits without jumping to a harsh new fixed number.
Why it matters
If you need a client to wait longer before a reinforcer, inch the interval up bit by bit. The pause will follow. No extra signals required. Start small, add a second or two each session, and let the schedule do the teaching.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Progressive-interval performances are described using measures that have proven to be successful in the analysis of fixed-interval responding. Five rats were trained with schedules in which the durations of consecutive intervals increased arithmetically as each interval was completed (either 6-s or 12-s steps for different subjects). The response patterns that emerged with extended training (90 sessions) indicated that performances had come under temporal control. Postreinforcement pausing increased as a function of the interval duration, the pauses were proportional to the prevailing duration, and the likelihood of the first response within an interval increased as the interval elapsed. To assess the resistance of these patterns to disruption, subjects were trained with a schedule that generated high response rates and short pauses (variable ratio). When the progressive-interval schedule was reinstated, pausing was attenuated and rates were elevated, but performances reverted to earlier patterns with continued exposure. The results indicated that temporal control by progressive-interval schedules, although slow to develop, is similar in many respects to that for fixed-interval schedules.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1996 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1996.66-311