Lowe C F, Beasty A, Bentall R P
J Exp Anal Behav. 1983 Jan;39(1):157-64. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1983.39-157.
The performances of two infants less than one year old were investigated on fixed-interval schedules. When the infants touched a cylinder either music or food was presented according to fixed-interval schedules ranging in value from 10 to 50 seconds. With respect to two principal criteria, namely, pattern of responding and sensitivity to the schedule parameter, the subjects' behavior closely resembled that of animals but differed markedly from that of older children and adults. Negatively accelerated responding in the course of the fixed interval in the early sessions gave way to a scalloped pattern, consisting of a pause after reinforcement followed by an accelerated response rate. This scalloped pattern was the final form of responding on all schedule values. Analysis of data after performance had stabilized showed that postreinforcement pause was a negatively accelerated increasing function, and running rate (calculated after excluding the postreinforcement pause) was a declining function, of schedule value. On each schedule, the durations of mean successive interresponse times declined in the course of the fixed interval and were directly related to schedule value. The results supported Lowe's (1979) suggestion that verbal behavior may be responsible for major differences in the schedule performance of older humans and animals.
对两名不到一岁的婴儿在固定间隔时间表下的表现进行了研究。当婴儿触摸一个圆柱体时，会根据10到50秒不等的固定间隔时间表呈现音乐或食物。就两个主要标准而言，即反应模式和对时间表参数的敏感性，受试者的行为与动物的行为非常相似，但与年龄较大的儿童和成年人的行为明显不同。在早期实验中，固定间隔期间的负加速反应让位于一种扇贝形模式，即强化后有一个停顿，随后是加速的反应率。这种扇贝形模式是所有时间表值下反应的最终形式。对表现稳定后的数据分析表明，强化后停顿是时间表值的负加速增加函数，而运行速率（排除强化后停顿后计算）是时间表值的递减函数。在每个时间表上，平均连续反应时间的持续时间在固定间隔期间下降，并且与时间表值直接相关。结果支持了洛（1979）的观点，即言语行为可能是导致年长人类和动物在时间表表现上存在重大差异的原因。
