Date of Award
4-1987
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Jack L. Michael
Second Advisor
Dr. Richard Malott
Third Advisor
Dr. Howard Farris
Abstract
Previous research has identified and isolated the elicited (autoshaped) control of pigeons' response latencies. The present research, using auditory frequencies as discriminative stimuli, was designed to eliminate the intrusion of this elicited control.
Two experiments are presented, both using a discrete-trial, two-component multiple schedule. In Experiment 1, in which a two-key arrangement was used, pigeons were required to peck a continuously-illuminated left key when one of two different frequencies, each correlated with a different amount of reinforcement, was presented behind the illuminated right key. In Experiment 2, in which a three-key arrangement was used, pigeons were required to peck either a left or right continuously illuminated key, when one of two different frequencies, each correlated with a different amount of reinforcement, was presented behind an unlit center key.
Experiment 1 failed to produce a separation in median response latencies; one could not determine whether this represented failure of the pigeon's response to come under the control of the different auditory frequencies or failure to come under the control of the different reinforcement variables.
Experiment 2 demonstrated that the responses could be brought under the control of the two auditory frequencies, that the median response latencies could be affected by different amounts of reinforcement, and most importantly, all responses were under the control of discriminative, rather than elicited, stimuli.
Access Setting
Dissertation-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Neal, Albert Edward, "Differential Response Latencies Using Auditory Stimuli" (1987). Dissertations. 2246.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/2246