Procrastination by pigeons with fixed-interval response requirements

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
J E Mazur

Abstract

Two experiments studied the phenomenon of procrastination, in which pigeons chose a larger, more delayed response requirement over a smaller, more immediate response requirement. The response requirements were fixed-interval schedules that did not lead to an immediate food reinforcer, but that interrupted a 55-s period in which food was delivered at random times. The experiments used an adjusting-delay procedure in which the delay to the start of one fixed-interval requirement was varied over trials to estimate an indifference point--a delay at which the two alternatives were chosen about equally often. Experiment 1 found that as the delay to a shorter fixed-interval requirement was increased, the adjusting delay to a longer fixed-interval requirement also increased, and the rate of increase depended on the duration of the longer fixed-interval requirement. Experiment 2 found a strong preference for a fixed delay of 10 s to the start of a fixed-interval requirement compared to a mixed delay of either 0 or 20 s. The results help to distinguish among different equations that might describe the decreasing effectiveness of a response requirement with increasing delay, and they suggest that delayed reinforcers and delayed response r...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 1, 2008·The Behavior Analyst·Henry D SchlingerAlan Baron
Jan 15, 2019·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science·Shunmin ZhangTingyong Feng
Jul 31, 2012·Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis·Christopher J Perrin, Nancy A Neef

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