Periodicity of Response in Operant Extinction following Continuous and Fixed Ratio Reinforcement

Abstract

The rate of response during an extinction session of two groups of rats, trained under a continuous and a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule respectively, was examined. It was found that both sets of data required a two factor analysis, factor rA describing the rate of response during response burst periods and factor tQ the rate of quiescent, non-response periods. Both reinforcement and extinction sessions were analysed with respect to response pattern distributions. It was found that on this variable the two groups differed significantly from each other.