ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned primarily with the study of two paradigms, chained and second-order schedules of reinforcement. In the traditional view, reinforcement has been considered a static property of a stimulus. In a chained schedule of reinforcement, a single primary reinforcement follows the completion of a sequence of individual schedule requirements, each of which is accompanied by a characteristic stimulus. Less attention has been paid to the temporal patterns of responding that develop under chained schedules. A major concern in research on chained schedules is the effect of the number, type, and quantitative requirements of the component schedules. The discriminative and reinforcing functions of the component stimuli of chained schedules have been investigated by changing their order of presentation. The maintenance of responding under chained schedules has often been interpreted in terms of conditioned reinforcement. Sustained responding by brief stimulus presentations that are scheduled concurrently with food has been demonstrated under several conditions.
