PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE TO REWARD: SEGMENTATION OF APERIODIC SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT

Abstract

College students responded for monetary rewards in two experiments on choice between differentially segmented aperiodic schedules of reinforcement. On a microcomputer, the concurrent chains were simulated as an air-defense video game in which subjects used two radars for detecting and destroying enemy aircraft. To earn more cash-exchangeable points, subjects had to shoot down as many planes as possible within a given period of time. For both experiments, access to one of two radar systems (terminal link) was controlled by a pair of independent concurrent variable-interval 60-s schedules (initial link) with a 4-s changeover delay always in effect. In Experiment 1, the appearance of an enemy aircraft in the terminal link was determined by a variable-interval (15 s or 60 s) schedule or a two-component chained variable-interval schedule of equal duration. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except for the segmented schedule, which had three components. Subjects preferred the unsegmented schedule over its segmented counterpart in the conditions with variable-interval 60 s, and preference tended to be more pronounced with more components in the segmented schedule. These findings are compatible with those from previous studies of periodic and aperiodic schedules with pigeons or humans as subjects.