Interacción de contingencias en automantenimiento positivo

Abstract

Eight pigeons were tested in a positive auto-maintenance procedure in wich a responsekey was illuminated by a green light for 8 sec at the end of a 60 sec fixed intervalo Atthe end of this 8 sec period, the food magazine was presented for a 3 seconds intervaloIn the first experiment, for half of the pigeons, the effects of introducing, on thesame response key, a red light which signalled either, a 8 seconds contingent or non-contingentperiod were evaluated. Three temporallocations of this signal were evaluated (12,24 and 40 sec).In Experiment 2, four pigeons were placed under the same experimental conditions,except that in this one the signal was on the right key. In both experiments the results showed that temporallocation and the nature 01 theimposed period did not produce signi/icant ellects attributable to such manipulation.However, when the spatiallocation 01 the signal was manipulated, consistent ellects wereobserved, both in terms 01 percentage 01 trials with at least one response and in terms 01latency to the lirst response.