ABSTRACT
The parameter-free delay-reduction hypothesis, developed in studies of choice, states that the strength of a stimulus as a conditioned reinforcer is a function of the reduction in time till reinforcement correlated with the onset of that stimulus (Fantino, 1969, 1977, 1981; Fantino & Davison, 1983; Squires & Fantino, 1971). Expressed differently, the greater the improvement, in terms of temporal proximity or waiting time till reinforcement, correlated with the onset of a stimulus, the more effective that stimulus will be as a conditioned reinforcer. Although the hypothesis has been extended to areas such as observing (Case & Fantino, 1981), self-control (Ito & Asaki, 1982; Navarick & Fantino, 1976), elicited responding (Fantino, 1982), and three-alternative choice (Fantino & Dunn, 1983), the hypothesis was first developed to account for choice for two variable-interval schedules of reinforcement (Fantino, 1969; Squires & Fantino, 1971). The simplest form of the delay-reduction hypothesis may be stated as: https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> R e i n f o r c i n g s t r e n g t h o f s t i m u l u s A = f ( T − t A T ) , https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203781685/b480eb8b-3901-412e-9e2f-6b4711721985/content/math_59_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> where t A represents the temporal interval between the onset of stimulus A and primary reinforcement, T represents the total time between reinforcer presentations and the function is montonically increasing.
