Dougan, Faculty Advisor, James D

Kennedy, Colleen M

Digital Commons @ Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUJohn Wesley Powell Student ResearchConference 1994, 5th Annual JWP ConferenceApr 23rd, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PMVI Response Function and Elapsed TimeColleen M. KennedyIllinois Wesleyan UniversityJames D. Dougan, Faculty AdvisorIllinois Wesleyan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprcThis Event is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Colleen M. Kennedy and James D. Dougan, Faculty Advisor, "VI Response Function and Elapsed Time" (April 23, 1994).John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference. Paper 33.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprc/1994/posters/33VI RESPONSE FUNCTION AND ELAPSED TIME Colleen M. Kennedy and James D. Dougan*, Department of Psychology, IWU. Previous experimentation studying the relationship between response rate and reinforcement rate on simple variable interval schedules has been inconclusive. Some studies have found a monotonic relationship, others a bitonic. The present experiment examined the effects of elapsed time on the response function. Six rats pressed a retractable bar for food while on one of four variable interval (VI) schedules (VI 7.5s, VI 15s, VI 30s, VI 480s) with the bar available only during the first ten minutes or the last ten minutes of 30 minute sessions. A bitonic function was found in all six rats under each condition. However, the function was more strongly bitonic when the bar was available in the last ten minutes of the session. The results support that elapsed session time has an effect on the form of the response function. 

VI Response Function and Elapsed Time

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VI Response Function and Elapsed Time

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