ABSTRACT
The chapters in this volume address the question of how delays, and intervening events during delays, between operant responses and reinforcement affect the value of reinforcement. The problem of delay-of-reinforcement goes to the heart of this matter. Disruptions in temporal contiguity between operant responses and reinforcement in general have been shown to weaken responding as measured by runway speed, number of errors, response latency, or response rate. However, such effects of delay-of-reinforcement have been examined most frequently in the context of response acquisition and extinction (see, e.g., reviews by Renner, 1964 and by Tarpy & Sawabini, 1974). “Intervening events” refer, in the present context, both to stimuli and to responses that might occur during delay- of-reinforcement procedures. The behavioral effects of disruptions in temporal contiguity and of many types of intervening events have been taken as prima facie evidence that these variables devalue or otherwise degrade the effectiveness of the reinforcer (cf. Nevin, 1973, 1974, Exp. 4). More generally, the problem of delay-of-reinforcement is central in many current theoretical discussions of mechanisms of the control of operant behavior.
