The effects of component duration on multiple-schedule performance in closed and open economies.
Long work periods weaken matching when extra reinforcers wait outside the session, but strengthen matching when session food is the only food.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pigeons pecked two keys for grain. Each key paid off on its own VI schedule.
The session chopped into long or short components. In open economies birds could eat extra after the session. In closed economies session food was all they got.
Researchers watched how duration and economy changed the match between response rate and reinforcement rate.
What they found
Long components hurt matching in open economies. Birds pecked the lean key even less than the law predicts.
The same long components helped matching in closed economies. Birds now tracked the payoff ratio more closely.
Closed economies also showed stronger over-matching at long durations.
How this fits with other research
McSweeney (1975) already showed clean matching under plain concurrent VI. Brown et al. (1988) extends that work by showing the match falls apart or tightens depending on food outside the chamber.
Finney et al. (1995) found that a 5-15 s changeover delay sharpens matching in hens. The 1988 study flips the coin: instead of inserting a delay between keys, it stretches the whole component and still sees timing matter.
Davis et al. (1972) warned that even short signaled delays cut response rates. The 1988 data echo the warning—timing variables keep biting, just through a different door.
Why it matters
If your client can grab snacks after therapy, you are running an open economy. Long work periods may make the child drift toward the richer task and skip the lean one more than you expect. Shorten the work block or tighten outside access to keep the chosen response ratio in line with the payoff ratio.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Pigeons responded on multiple variable-interval variable-interval schedules of reinforcement in an open and a closed economy. Equal duration components were increased in duration while the component rates of reinforcement were held constant, the component schedules were reversed, and component duration was decreased. In the open economy, daily sessions were limited to 1 hr, and subjects were maintained at 80% of their free-feeding weights through supplemental feeding when necessary in their home cages. In the closed economy, subjects were housed in their experimental chambers and no deprivation regimen was enforced. Relative response rate decreased as components were lengthened in the open economy, whereas in the closed economy relative rate increased as components were lengthened. Response proportions overmatched reinforcer proportions to a greater extent at long component durations in the closed economy, but there was no systematic effect of component duration on responding in the open economy.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1988 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1988.50-457