The DOI matches its Crossref record; 14 of the 14 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
PROBABILISTICALLY REINFORCED CHOICE BEHAVIOR IN PIGEONS1
Open accessAbstract
A single principle, "momentary maximizing", may account for much of a pigeon's steady-state behavior in both probability learning and concurrent variable interval experiments. The principle states that a pigeon tends to choose the alternative that momentarily has the higher probability of reinforcement. A successive discrimination procedure, which produced matching in an earlier experiment, produced here a tendency to maximize if training were adequately extended. Maximizing was produced also by other procedures, in which no reinforcing event was presented on some trials: one procedure did and two did not provide a bird with information about the availability of reinforcement on a key after an unreinforced response on the other key. The latter two procedures were analogous to concurrent variable interval schedules in two respects: the reinforcement probability on one key increased while a bird responded on the other key; and they produced matching. But sequential statistics suggested that matching resulted from momentary maximizing. Depending on the procedure, the tendency to maximize produced different relative frequencies of pecking a key for a fixed relative frequency of reinforcement. Computer simulation of maximizing behavior in several concurrent variable interval schedules produced matching and sequential statistics similar to those produced by a real bird.
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“Empirical tests of the hypothesis that animals use trial counting to maximize reinforcement rate are equivocal, with evidence for (Hinson & Staddon, 1983; Shimp, 1966; Silberberg et al., 1978) and against (Herrnstein, data published in de Villiers, 1977; Heyman, 1979; Nevin, 1969, 1979) the hypothesis.”
From DYNAMIC RESPONSE-BY-RESPONSE MODELS OF MATCHING BEHAVIOR IN RHESUS MONKEYS (2005) · cites this paper as Shimp, 1966
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Cites
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Metadata
- Authors
- Shimp, C. P.
- Affiliations
- Brown University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Shimp, Charles P.
- Venue
- Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1966-07
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 443-455
- ISSN
- 0022-5002 (ISSN-L)
- 1938-3711
- PMC
- PMC1338246
- OpenAlex
- W2087585530
- Cited by
- 257
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 3.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- choice behavior, pigeons, probability learning, matching behavior, reinforcement probability, reinforcement frequency
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Birds, Computers, Discrimination Learning, Learning, Male, Probability Learning, Reinforcement, Psychology
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