Schedule induced behavior: a methodological and conceptual analysis
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An analysis of the main methodological and conceptual issues in schedule-induced behavior studies are presented. A brief history on the origin of the studies of schedule-induced behavior are presented, beginning with Falk's (1961) first publication about psychogenic polydipsia, and including a brief description of studies about aggression, wheel-running, wood-chewing and schedule-induced defecation. The results of those studies show that the characteristics and causal explanation of such behaviors remain controversial. Some trouble begins whit the terms used lo denominate schedule-induced behaviors, which include expressions like adjunctive behavior, interim behavior, and some other else. Another controversial point in this area is related to the disagreement on the main characteristics which define schedule induction, like excessiveness, temporal distribution, and the relation between adjunctive behavior and the inter-stimuli interval. Excessiveness is measured by the rate or amount of behavior compared with that occurring in condition that dont impose delays between feeding periods or other relevant behavior. However, theres no agreement about the proper comparison condition. Roper (1971) argued that excessiveness should be evaluate against both massed-food control and extinction control. Timberlake (1982) considered that the massed-food control was the more appropriate comparison, and Cohen and Looney (1984) argued that the first step to evaluate the enhancement of the behavior relative to a no-reinforcer baseline, and the second step is to determine how changing a specific aspect on that schedule directly contributes to that enhancement effect. Programmed contingency contributes to the development of a stereotyped and temporally entrained within the inter-stimuli interval. When polydipsia is developed, this behavior generally occurs immediately after food ingestion, but when other behaviors have conditions to be developed the same temporal organization didnt occur. A final difficulty with the specification of the characteristics which define schedule-induced behaviors is related to the nature of relationship obtained between adjunctive behavior and inter-stimuli interval. Early studies reported an inverted U function between the length of the inter-stimulus interval and the amount of water consumed. Recent studies, however, show a direct relationship. Finally, the present article analyses the two main current theoretical approaches which explain the schedule-induced phenomenon. One emphasizing the excessive character on adjunctive behavior, following Falk's (1977) causal explanation that consider that the adjunctive behavior occurs in a many situations in which there is a conflict between appetitive and aversive factors. The other explaining the phenomenon from an ecological point view (Timbelake's Behavior System Approach), by arguing that it is very important that an animal is able to produce adaptive organized sequences of behavior in the presence of incomplete, novel, and intermittent cues, Iike those in which small pieces of food or small amount of water are intermittently delivered.
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