Abstract
Rats’ lever pressing and wheel running were maintained on concurrently operating variable-interval (VI) schedules of food reinforcement. When the schedule for lever pressing was changed to a multiple VI extinction (EXT) schedule, the probability of lever pressing decreased in EXT and increased in VI (positive behavior contrast). Simultaneously, the probability of wheel running increased in EXT and decreased in VI. Next, the wheel locked either in VI or in EXT. To hold reinforcement parameters constant when the wheel was locked, the schedule for wheel running was changed to response-independent reinforcement on a variable-time schedule. With the wheel locked in VI, the probability of VI lever pressing increased. With the wheel locked in EXT, the probability of wheel running increased in VI, and the probability of VI lever pressing simultaneously decreased resulting in prevention of positive behavior contrast. For one rat, lever pressing and wheel running developed into chained behaviors that were emitted simultaneously, and the results differed for that animal. The experiment shows that positive behavior contrast can depend upon concurrently reinforced behavior, even when reinforcement parameters are unchanged.
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