The effects of global temporal context on choice in concurrent chain schedules of reinforcement

Eleven pigeons responded on a concurrent chain schedule of reinforcement in order to\ud examine the effects of global temporal context on initial link choice proportion. Each\ud bird was exposed to alternating blocks of concurrent chain schedules and either response\ud dependent or response independent schedules representing the global context. Global\ud context effects were found. Mean choice proportion during the initial links decreased as\ud the duration of the context conditions increased. The results indicate that the temporal\ud length of the context condition, and, to a lesser extent, response dependent or independent\ud requirements, influence initial link choice proportion during a concurrent chains\ud procedure. These global context effects are not accounted for in any of the three main\ud quantitative models of choice. However, the global temporal context effect is consistent\ud with each model???s assertion that initial link choice proportion is decreased as the local\ud temporal context duration is increased.CSU, Chic