Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2018 Oct;25(5):1952-1957. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1409-2.
Procrastination is the tendency to put off initiation or completion of a task. Although people are typically known to procrastinate, recent research suggests that they sometimes "pre-crastinate" by initiating a task sooner than they need to (Rosenbaum et al. in Psychological Science, 25(7), 1487-1496, 2014). A similar finding of precrastination was reported by Wasserman and Brzykcy (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 1130-1134, 2015) with pigeons using a somewhat different procedure. In the present experiment, we used a procedure with pigeons that was more similar to the procedure used by Rosenbaum et al. Pigeons were given a choice between two sequences of events (concurrent chains). Choice of the procrastination chain resulted in color A, which 15-s later would change to color B and 5-s later resulted in reinforcement. Choice of the precrastination chain resulted in color C, which 5-s later would change to color D and 15-s later resulted in reinforcement. Thus, both chains led to reinforcement after 20 s. Results indicated that the pigeons procrastinated. That is, they preferred the 15-5 chain over the 5-15 chain. The results are consistent with Fantino's (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 723-730, 1969) delay reduction theory, which posits that stimuli that signal a reduction in the delay to reinforcement, such as the 5-s stimulus that occurred immediately prior to reinforcement, serve as strong conditioned reinforcers and should be preferred. In support of this theory, the pigeons pecked most at the 5-s stimulus that led immediately to reinforcement, indicating that it had become a strong conditioned reinforcer. The results suggest that delay reduction theory, a theory that emphasizes the attraction to stimuli that predict reinforcement with a short delay, also may contribute to human procrastination behavior because when task completion comes just before the deadline, it may become a stronger conditioned reinforcer than if task completion comes earlier.
拖延是指推迟开始或完成任务的倾向。尽管人们通常被认为会拖延，但最近的研究表明，他们有时会“提前拖延”，即比需要的时间更早地开始任务（Rosenbaum 等人在《心理科学》杂志，25(7)，1487-1496，2014 年）。Wasserman 和 Brzykcy（《心理与认知评论》，22，1130-1134，2015 年）用鸽子进行了一项类似的提前拖延研究，采用了一种稍微不同的程序。在本实验中，我们使用了一种与 Rosenbaum 等人使用的程序更相似的鸽子程序。鸽子可以在两个事件序列（并发链）之间做出选择。选择拖延链会导致颜色 A，15 秒后颜色 A 会变成颜色 B，5 秒后会得到强化。选择提前拖延链会导致颜色 C，5 秒后颜色 C 会变成颜色 D，15 秒后会得到强化。因此，两条链都在 20 秒后得到强化。结果表明，鸽子会拖延。也就是说，它们更喜欢 15-5 链而不是 5-15 链。结果与 Fantino（《实验分析行为杂志》，12，723-730，1969 年）的延迟减少理论一致，该理论认为，信号延迟减少的刺激，如强化前立即出现的 5 秒刺激，作为强条件强化物，应该被优先选择。支持这一理论，鸽子啄最多的是立即导致强化的 5 秒刺激，表明它已成为一个强条件强化物。结果表明，强调对预测短延迟强化的刺激的吸引力的延迟减少理论，也可能导致人类拖延行为，因为当任务完成刚好在最后期限之前，它可能成为比任务提前完成更强的条件强化物。
