INVESTIGATING BEHAVIORAL DYNAMICS WITH A FIXED-TIME EXTINCTION SCHEDULE AND LINEAR-ANALYSIS

This paper describes the behavioral adaptation observed for 16 pigeons responding to a step transition in the reinforcement rate in a repeat ed-trial design. Within each trial, following exposure for a fixed per iod to a variable-interval schedule, there was an unsignaled change in the schedule to extinction. The step transition allowed an experiment al test of the applicability of a linear analysis to steady-state dyna mic behavior. The computations required for this test yielded, as an i ntermediate result, transfer functions for each of the 16 birds from 1 mHz to 256 mHz. The transfer functions obtained show greater responsi veness to lower frequencies (i.e., longer time-scale structures in the reinforcement schedule); hence, the pigeons have the characteristics of a low-pass filter The outcome of the test is that some predictabili ty of the pigeons' future behavior is possible.