When a stay is a switch: Discriminative control of response chunks determines preference during concurrent VI VI schedules

https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00058
Published: July 21, 2026
Copyright: The authors (CC BY 4.0)

Cleaveland, J.M. (2026). When a stay is a switch: Discriminative control of response chunks determines preference during concurrent VI VI schedules. advances.in/psychology, 1, e339950. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00058

Cleaveland, J. Mark. "When a stay is a switch: Discriminative control of response chunks determines preference during concurrent VI VI schedules." advances.in/psychology, vol. 1, no. 1, 2026, e339950. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00058.

Cleaveland, J. Mark. 2026. "When a stay is a switch: Discriminative control of response chunks determines preference during concurrent VI VI schedules." advances.in/psychology 1 (1): e339950. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00058.

Cleaveland JM. When a stay is a switch: Discriminative control of response chunks determines preference during concurrent VI VI schedules. advances.in/psychology. 2026;1(1):e339950. doi:10.56296/aip00058.

Cleaveland, J.M. (2026) 'When a stay is a switch: Discriminative control of response chunks determines preference during concurrent VI VI schedules', advances.in/psychology, 1(1), e339950. Available at: https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00058.

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We present evidence that changeover delays (CODs) can organize responding into response chunks and that the discriminative control of these units can contribute to observed preference during concurrent variable-interval (VI) VI schedules of reinforcement. Two experiments were conducted with pigeons. Both utilized multiple VI 30-s VI 60-s, VI 30-s VI 60-s schedules of reinforcement. One of the VI 30-s schedules was further paired with a 2.5-s changeover delay (COD). After training, unreinforced probes trials were conducted that paired the two stimuli associated with the VI 30-s schedules. In both experiments, during training, birds showed a preference for the VI 30-s schedule over the VI 60-s schedule. This preference was more extreme for the schedule pair in which a COD was programmed with the VI 30-s schedule. Further, an analysis of molecular response patterns found that the application of a COD led to discrete bursts of rapid responding, but only to the VI 30-s schedule to which a COD had been assigned. Finally, during probes, we observed a peck-based preference for the VI 30-s stimulus associated with a COD only when the probe procedure appeared to preserve discriminative control over the trained response structure.

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