THEORIES OF PROBABILISTIC REINFORCEMENT
THEORIES OF PROBABILISTIC REINFORCEMENT
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DOI：
10.1901/jeab.1989.51-87
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发表时间：
1989-01-01
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
MAZUR, JE
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
MAZUR, JE
In three experiments, pigeons chose between two alternatives that differed in the probability of reinforcement and to delay to reinforcement. A peck at a red key led to a delay of 5 s and then a possible reinforcer. A peck at a green key led to an adjusting delay and then a certain reinforcer. This delay was ajusted over trails so as to estimate an indifference point, or a duration at which the two altenatives were chosen about equally often. In Experiments 1 and 2, he intertrial interval was varied across conditions, and these variations had no systematic effects on choice. In Experiment 3, the stimuli that followed a choice of the red key differed across conditions. In some conditions, a red houselight was presented for 5 s after each choice of the red key. In other conditions, the red houselight was present on reinforced trials but not on nonreinforced trials. Subjects exhibited greater preference for the red key in the latter case. The results were used to evaluate four different theories of probabilistic reinforcement. The results were most consistent with the view that the value or effectiveness of a probabilistic reinforcer is determined by the total time per reinforcer spent in the presence of stimuli associated with the probabilistic alternative. According to this veiw, probabilistic reinforcers are analogous to reinforcers that are delivered after variable delays.
