The Influence of the Length of Waiting Time on Pigeons' Behavior to Fill in the Time

Abstract

Three pigeons were exposed to concurrent chain schedules where the terminal links were either an FT X sec schedule or a conjunctive FR20 FT X sec schedule. Four interval conditions (20, 30, 40, 50 sec) were included in the FT schedule. One bird preferred the conjunctive schedule over the FT schedule on FT 20 sec condition but did not show a preference for the conjunctive schedule under other conditions. The other birds preferred the FT schedules or neither terminal links. These results suggest that behavior to fill in time might occur when waiting time until reinforcement is 20 second.