A comparison of extinction and DRO procedure in response elimination in pigeons

Abstract

Three groups of pigeons were trained to peck the response key (the target key) on a VI 30-sec.schedule.Then the target responses were eliminated by one of three procedures : extinction with the other key, differential reinforcement of other behavior with the other key (DRO (1)), or differential reinforcement of other behavior without the other key (DRO (2)).Responding to the other key was independent of the presentation of food.Efficiency and durability of elimination of the target key responding were measured by (1) how quickly the target response was eliminated when the procedure was in effect, (2) how much responding to the target key recovered when the procedure was discontinued, (3) how resistant the target key responding was when a VI schedule was reintroduced, and (4) how many responses occured to the other key.The elimination of the target key responding was more rapid in extinction and DRO (1) than in DRO (2).But the elimination was more durable in DRO (1) than in the other procedures.In addition, many responses to the other key developed in DRO (1).This responding was maintained during the elimination and durabilitytest phases.The results indicated that DRO schedule could be characterized by the development of other behavior, which resulted in the superior durability of the response elimination.