Date of Award:

5-2017

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Timothy A. Shahan

Committee

Timothy A. Shahan

Committee

Amy L. Odum

Committee

Gregory J. Madden

Committee

Timothy A. Slocum

Committee

Kerry E. Jordan

Abstract

Behavior is more likely to persist when disrupted in some way in the presence of stimuli correlated with frequent delivery of reward than in the presence of stimuli correlated with infrequent rewards. In laboratory investigations, the correlation between reward rates and specific stimuli are almost always held constant before testing for persistence. In the real world, however, how often rewards are encountered is likely to vary substantially over time. The major goal of the work described in this dissertation was to explore effects of reward rates that change over time on persistence of behavior in controlled laboratory settings using pigeon subjects. The first study demonstrated that persistence is more strongly influenced by rates of reward that were experienced recently than by rates of reward that were experienced in the distant past. The second study demonstrated that removing rewards for behavior in one context can subsequently reduce persistence of behavior maintained in another correlated context. Together, results from these studies provide initial insights into how persistence is affected by environments that change over time. They also underscore potentially important shortcomings of our current understanding of factors that cause behavior to persist.

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