Abstract
Four pigeons engaged in chained schedules in a closed economy. Schedules in the first links were always FR1 and those in the second link changed through the experiment. In Stage 1, costs (responses per reinforcer) in VI schedule were calculated. Costs increased as a function of VI values. Average values of these costs were used as FR values in Stage 2 and effects of the cost on the reinforcement rates were examined. Using the average value of spending times in the FR schedule (Stage 2) as VI and FI values in Stage 3 and 4, effects of the delay time on the reinforcement rates were examined. Reinforcement rates were calculated to the total (first+second) links. Results showed that demand curve in VI coincided with that in FR while that in FI explicitly deviated downward at the lowest value. These data provide that decrease in demand depended on an increase of delay time rather than cost and that the eating behavior defined by the time allocation between the first and second links was specific to each schedule.
