Local patterns in human operant behavior and a behaving model to interrelate animal and human performances.

College students pressed buttons for points delivered according to molecular concurrent reinforcement contingencies similar to those used in previous experiments with animal subjects. Relative frequency of reinforcement and the relative and absolute durations of two reinforced patterns of button pressing were experimentally varied. Qualitative effects of all three variables resembled those obtained previously with animals. Computer simulation of a cognitive processing model described these qualitative effects. A similar model was used previously to describe corresponding behavior in pigeons. Therefore, similar cognitive processing may underlie the local temporal patterning of animal and human operant behavior maintained by this concurrent reinforcement contingency.