Patterns of responding in conditioned reinforcement schedules superimposed on primary reinforcement schedules

Actions that modify schedules of reinforcement

Many everyday activities involve the use of one action to modify the effects of another: When driving, shifting gears modifies the influence of pressing the gas pedal on acceleration; when cooking, the rate of adding a particular ingredient modifies the influence of stirring on viscosity. Here, we investigate a general ability to learn how to use actions to control schedules of reinforcement. I...

Assessing Animals’ Preferences: Concurrent Schedules of Reinforcement

Schedules of Reinforcement and Game Experience

The objective of this paper is to better understand the incentives and rewards structure in online serious games for crowds. We address the issue of feedback mechanisms with a focus on the relationship between game behavior and accumulated game scores (points). We posit that the score keeping system design is likely to inform us regarding patterns of participation in games. Our question is: wha...

Human responding on random-interval schedules of response-cost punishment: the role of reduced reinforcement density.

An experiment with adult humans investigated the effects of response-contingent money loss (response-cost punishment) on monetary-reinforced responding. A yoked-control procedure was used to separate the effects on responding of the response-cost contingency from the effects of reduced reinforcement density. Eight adults pressed buttons for money on a three-component multiple reinforcement sche...

Effects of pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus lesions on responding for intravenous heroin under different schedules of reinforcement.

The pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) is believed to play important roles in reward and learning. We examined the effect of PPTg lesions (0.5 microl of 0.1 M NMDA injected bilaterally over 10 min) on the learning of an operant response for opiate reward. In 14 adult male Long-Evans rats, bilateral lesions of the PPTg disrupted the acquisition of responding for intravenous heroin (0.1 mg...