Concurrent-Chain Performance
Michael Davison, Dianne McCarthy · 2016
In concurrent schedules, subjects emit two or more responses that are intermit tently followed by reinforcers. In contrast, a concurrent-chain schedule (some times called a concurrent-chains schedule) is a schedule in which subjects choose, on concurrent schedules, between periods o f access to schedules o f reinforcement. The concurrent-schedule parts of the procedure are called the initial links (or choice phase), and the periods of access to the schedules are called the terminal links (or outcome phase). The initial links and each of the terminal links are usually signaled by different discriminative stimuli, and sometimes they are arranged on different manipulanda. It is important to note, before discussing concurrent-chain schedules further, that such schedules differ from concurrent schedules quantitatively, not qualitatively. A concurrent-chain schedule with 0-s delays in both terminal links is a concurrent schedule, so any attempt at a quantitative description of concurrent-chain performance must reduce to a reasonable concurrent-schedule account when the terminal links are asymptotically short.