Several different arrangements have been described for increasing the response requirements for reinforcement using the label "progressive-ratio schedule." Under the original progressive-ratio schedule, the response requirement is increased after each reinforcer. Subsequently, arrangements have been used in which the number of required responses…

Three experiments were conducted with rats in which responses on one lever (labeled the functional lever) produced reinforcers after an unsignaled delay period that reset with each response during the delay. Responses on a second, nonfunctional, lever did not initiate delays, but, in the first and third experiments, such responses during the last…

Evidence of how behavioral research and technology have evolved together abounds in the history of the "Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior" ("JEAB"). Technology from outside the discipline (exogenous) from such disciplines as electronics and computer science has been adapted for use in behavioral research. Technology from within the…

An observing procedure was used to investigate the effects of alterations in response-conditioned-reinforcer relations on observing. Pigeons responded to produce schedule-correlated stimuli paired with the availability of food or extinction. The contingency between observing responses and conditioned reinforcement was altered in three experiments.…

Baron and Galizio (2005) reviewed and updated Michael's (1975) observations concerning the problems surrounding the distinction between positive and negative reinforcement. In the end they concluded that the valence is unjustified. However, despite the fact that the logical and empirical underpinnings of the distinction have been questioned for…

Recent experiments are reviewed in three areas of research concerning reinforcement schedules: (1) behavioral history effects on schedule performance; (2) the role of instructions in schedule performance of humans; and (3) dynamic schedules of reinforcement. The paper concludes by identifying some general issues concerning reinforcement schedules…