Rapid acquisition in concurrent chains: evidence for a decision model.

Full Abstract

Pigeons' choice in concurrent chains can adapt to rapidly changing contingencies. Grace, Bragason, and McLean (2003) found that relative initial-link response rate was sensitive to the immediacy ratio in the current session when one of the terminal-link fixed-interval schedules was changed daily according to a pseudorandom binary sequence (e.g., Schofield & Davison, 1997). The present experiment tested whether the degree of variation in delays across sessions had any effect on acquisition rate in Grace et al.'s (2003) rapid-acquisition procedure. In one condition ("minimal variation"), the left terminal link was always fixed-interval 8 s and the right terminal link was either fixed-interval 4 s or fixed-interval 16 s. In the other condition ("maximal variation"), a unique pair of fixed-interval values was used in each session. Responding was sensitive to the current-session immediacy ratio in both conditions, but across subjects there was no systematic difference in sensitivity. These results challenge the view that initial-link responding in the rapid-acquisition procedure is determined by changes in the learned value of the terminal-link stimuli, and suggests instead that a process resembling categorical discrimination may control performance. A decision model based on the assumption that delays are categorized as short or long relative to the history of delays provided a good account of the data and shows promise in being able to explain other choice phenomena.

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Author information

Author/s: Grace, Randolph C (RC); McLean, Anthony P (AP);

Affiliation: University of Canterbury, Department of Psychology, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. randolph.grace(-atsign-)canterbury.ac.nz

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior (J Exp Anal Behav), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Mar; vol 85 (issue 2) : pp 181-202

Dates: Created 2006/05/05; Completed 2006/09/08; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 16673825, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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