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Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task

Phil Reed Orcid Logo

Learning & Behavior, Volume: 48, Issue: 2, Pages: 254 - 273

Swansea University Author: Phil Reed Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3758/s13420-019-00398-1

Abstract

Three experiments examined human rates and patterns of responding during exposure to various schedules of reinforcement with or without a concurrent task. In the presence of the concurrent task, performances were similar to those typically noted for nonhumans. Overall response rates were higher on m...

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Published in: Learning & Behavior
ISSN: 1543-4494 1543-4508
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2020
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52871
first_indexed 2020-01-15T19:27:36Z
last_indexed 2025-04-08T03:48:38Z
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spelling 2025-04-07T13:53:33.0214830 v2 52871 2019-11-25 Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task 100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83 0000-0002-8157-0747 Phil Reed Phil Reed true false 2019-11-25 PSYS Three experiments examined human rates and patterns of responding during exposure to various schedules of reinforcement with or without a concurrent task. In the presence of the concurrent task, performances were similar to those typically noted for nonhumans. Overall response rates were higher on medium-sized ratio schedules than on smaller or larger ratio schedules (Experiment 1), on interval schedules with shorter than longer values (Experiment 2), and on ratio compared with interval schedules with the same rate of reinforcement (Experiment 3). Moreover, bout-initiation responses were more susceptible to influence by rates of reinforcement than were within-bout responses across all experiments. In contrast, in the absence of a concurrent task, human schedule performance did not always display characteristics of nonhuman performance, but tended to be related to the relationship between rates of responding and reinforcement (feedback function), irrespective of the schedule of reinforcement employed. This was also true of within-bout responding, but not bout-initiations, which were not affected by the presence of a concurrent task. These data suggest the existence of two strategies for human responding on free-operant schedules, relatively mechanistic ones that apply to bout-initiation, and relatively explicit ones, that tend to apply to within-bout responding, and dominate human performance when other demands are not made on resources. Journal Article Learning & Behavior 48 2 254 273 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 1543-4494 1543-4508 Schedules of reinforcement; Response rate; Bout-initiation; Within-bout responding; Probability learning; Humans 1 6 2020 2020-06-01 10.3758/s13420-019-00398-1 COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University 2025-04-07T13:53:33.0214830 2019-11-25T15:30:59.5502257 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Phil Reed 0000-0002-8157-0747 1 52871__16320__ab36b64298c649468ab1e71980765b9b.pdf Reed (2020).pdf 2020-01-15T17:08:33.9158519 Output 2677333 application/pdf Version of Record true Released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task
spellingShingle Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task
Phil Reed
title_short Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task
title_full Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task
title_fullStr Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task
title_full_unstemmed Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task
title_sort Human free-operant performance varies with a concurrent task: Probability learning without a task, and schedule-consistent with a task
author_id_str_mv 100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83
author_id_fullname_str_mv 100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83_***_Phil Reed
author Phil Reed
author2 Phil Reed
format Journal article
container_title Learning & Behavior
container_volume 48
container_issue 2
container_start_page 254
publishDate 2020
institution Swansea University
issn 1543-4494
1543-4508
doi_str_mv 10.3758/s13420-019-00398-1
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 1
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description Three experiments examined human rates and patterns of responding during exposure to various schedules of reinforcement with or without a concurrent task. In the presence of the concurrent task, performances were similar to those typically noted for nonhumans. Overall response rates were higher on medium-sized ratio schedules than on smaller or larger ratio schedules (Experiment 1), on interval schedules with shorter than longer values (Experiment 2), and on ratio compared with interval schedules with the same rate of reinforcement (Experiment 3). Moreover, bout-initiation responses were more susceptible to influence by rates of reinforcement than were within-bout responses across all experiments. In contrast, in the absence of a concurrent task, human schedule performance did not always display characteristics of nonhuman performance, but tended to be related to the relationship between rates of responding and reinforcement (feedback function), irrespective of the schedule of reinforcement employed. This was also true of within-bout responding, but not bout-initiations, which were not affected by the presence of a concurrent task. These data suggest the existence of two strategies for human responding on free-operant schedules, relatively mechanistic ones that apply to bout-initiation, and relatively explicit ones, that tend to apply to within-bout responding, and dominate human performance when other demands are not made on resources.
published_date 2020-06-01T04:44:45Z
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score 11.089386

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