Critchfield T S, Lattal K A
Department of Psychology, Auburn University, Alabama 36849-5214.
J Exp Anal Behav. 1993 Mar;59(2):373-87. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1993.59-373.
Two experiments investigated the role of an immediate, response-produced auditory stimulus during acquisition, via delayed reinforcement, of a response selected to control for possible unprogrammed, operandum-related sources of response feedback. Experimentally naive rats were exposed to a delayed-food reinforcement condition, specifically a tandem fixed-ratio 1 differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior 30-s schedule. The response was defined as breaking a photocell beam located near the ceiling at the rear of the operant conditioning chamber. In Experiment 1, rates of photobeam breaking by each rat increased from near zero, regardless of the presence or absence of a tone that immediately followed the response initiating the delay interval. Though not essential, the tone facilitated response acquisition and resulted in more efficient response patterns at stability. Experiment 2 demonstrated that photobeam-breaking response rates under the delayed reinforcement contingency exceeded those in a preceding baseline condition in which no food was delivered. In addition, upon introduction of the delayed reinforcement procedure, correspondence between response patterns and the requirements of the reinforcement schedule increased over baseline levels in the absence of a food contingency. Together with a previous report of Lattal and Gleeson (1990), the present results suggest that response acquisition with delayed reinforcement is a robust phenomenon that may not depend on a mechanically defined response or an immediate external stimulus change to mediate the temporal gap between response and reinforcer.
两项实验研究了即时的、由反应产生的听觉刺激在通过延迟强化来习得一种反应过程中的作用，该反应是为控制可能与操作相关的、未编入程序的反应反馈源而选择的。实验用的是未经实验训练的大鼠，使其处于延迟食物强化条件下，具体为串联固定比率1差异强化其他行为30秒的时间表。反应被定义为打破位于操作性条件反射箱后部天花板附近的光电管光束。在实验1中，无论在启动延迟间隔的反应之后是否有音调出现，每只大鼠打破光束的速率都从接近零开始增加。虽然音调并非必不可少，但它促进了反应的习得，并在稳定状态下产生了更有效的反应模式。实验2表明，在延迟强化条件下，打破光束的反应速率超过了之前不给予食物的基线条件下的速率。此外，在引入延迟强化程序后，与没有食物条件时的基线水平相比，反应模式与强化时间表要求之间的对应性有所增加。与拉塔尔和格利森（1990年）之前的一份报告一起，目前的结果表明，通过延迟强化进行反应习得是一种稳健的现象，可能不依赖于机械定义的反应或即时的外部刺激变化来调节反应与强化物之间的时间间隔。
