Response-produced timeouts under a progressive-ratio schedule with a punished reset option

An attempt is made to extend the generality of timeouts from positive reinforcement to more complex performances. Pigeons were provided with three continuously available options. Responses on one key resulted in food reinforcement under a progressive-ratio schedule, which requires a larger number of responses for successive reinforcements; responses on a second key, which were shocked, reset the progressive-ratio schedule to its first step; and responses on a third key produced a 3-min timeout. Some of these conditions have been studied previously (Dardano, 1968, 1973; Findley, 1958). Questions of general interest included the frequency and stability of response-produced timeouts, changes in the properties of the progressive-ratio performance resulting from the occurrence of timeouts, and the similarity of the relationships between timeouts and the reinforced behavior to relationships found under simpler conditions of reinforcement.