Local Response Rates as Affected by Reinforcement Quality

Four white rats were trained to bar press on reinforcement schedule Tandem FI 30 sec. FR11, a procedure intended to approximate a runway situation with intertrial intervals of at least 30 sec. Means and distributions of times taken by Ss to make 10 responses were approximately equal irrespective of reinforcement quality over the range 0 to 32% sucrose by weight in water. Similiar results were obtained with two other Ss reinforced on schedule FR12, 5-sec. delay, and with another reinforced on schedule FR24. The results were interpreted as showing that reinforcement quality affects competing behavior rather than response speed when S is responding.