Abstract

PULIDO RULL, Marco Antonio; RUBI GONZALEZ, Mariana  and  BACKER HOEKSTRA, Cornelie. Effects of Signal Duration on Response Acquisition with Delayed Reinforcement under Temporally Defined Schedules of Reinforcement. Rev. mex. anál. conducta [online]. 2008, vol.34, n.2, pp.147-164. ISSN 0185-4534.

This study assessed the effects of signal duration and t^d duration on response acquisition of lever-pressing by rats. Thirty naïve male Wistar rats were exposed to one of ten different 32-s temporally defined schedules of delayed, signaled reinforcement. Reinforcement cycles were divided into two temporal time windows, t^d and t delta; responses emitted during t^d produced reinforcement at the end of the cycle; responses emitted during t delta had no programmed consequences. t^d was located at the beginning of the reinforcement cycle and was fixed at one of two different values (4-s or 8-s). The first response emitted during td produced an audible tone of different duration; tone duration was varied across groups Results showed variability, however evidence of response acquisition was more apparent with the long t^d duration and with the longer signals. This effect could probably be attributed to the interaction of Pavlovian, and mnemic variables with stimulus discrimination processes.

Keywords : Delayed reinforcement; lever-pressing; response acquisition; signal duration; temporally defined schedules.