A FIXED EFFORT SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT.
Abstract
The effects on conditioning performance and extinction of a Fixed Effort (FE) schedule of reinforcement were investigated. A FE schedule is programmed by requiring that the cumulative sum of the efforts of individual responses be larger than a pre-selected constant criterion (specified in gram-seconds). The effort of a response is defined as the time integral of force of the response. The major findings reported in this study are: a decrease in reinforcement rate as a function of the increased effort requirement per reinforcement; an apparent inhibiting effect of high effort requirements on effort per response; no effect of effort per reinforcement on resistance to extinction; a significant increase in the variability of effort per response during extinction; a significant difference between the effort distributions of the 60 gm. -sec. differentiation animals and the 60 gm. -sec. FE animals; and a correlation between the direction and amount of change of effort per response from conditioning to extinction.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0607325
Entities
People
- Maxwell A. Morfield
Organizations
- Princeton University