Abstract
Rats (Experiment 1) and pigeons (Experiment 2) responded on several concurrent fixed interval variable interval schedules. The programmed rate of reinforcement varied from 15 to 240 reinforcers per hour across conditions for each component. The rate of, but not the time spent, responding on each component usually changed within sessions. The patterns of changes in response rates within the session were similar enough for the two components that the bias and sensitivity to reinforcement parameters of, and the percentage of the variance accounted for by, the generalized matching law did not change within the session. These results imply that within-session changes in responding do not cause problems for assessing the validity of the generalized matching law when subjects respond on concurrent fixed interval variable interval schedules. They may help to explain why the matching law provides a good description of the data.
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