The Influence of Partial Reinforcement on Serial Autoshaping with Pigeons

The effect of partial reinforcement on the rate of responding during the first element of a serial compound was investigated using autoshaping in pigeons. Experiment I employed the illumination of a response key by two different colours as the elements of the compound. Responding during the first element was faster when this stimulus was intermittently paired with the second element and the unconditioned stimulus than when a continuous reinforcement schedule was employed. Experiment II demonstrated that this effect of partial reinforcement is unaffected by maniuplating the associative strength of the second element at the outset of compound conditioning. A similar effect of partial reinforcement was also found in Experiment III which used a tone as the first element of the serial compound.