DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT OF OTHER BEHAVIOR (DRO): A YOKED‐CONTROL COMPARISON1

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Abstract
After training to press a lever on a variable‐interval 30‐sec schedule, one group of rats was shifted to a differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other‐behavior 10‐sec schedule, while a second group was shifted to a noncontingent yoked‐control schedule that provided the same frequency and distribution of reinforcement. Then, both groups were extensively retrained on the variable‐interval schedule, after which the first group was shifted to a series of differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other‐behavior 30‐sec sessions alternating daily with variable‐interval 30‐sec sessions, while the second group was treated like the first on variable‐interval days and yoked with the first as before on differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other‐behavior days. In both phases, response‐decrement was more rapid and more marked in the differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other‐behavior animals than in the controls. The difference was due, at least in large measure, to sustainment of response in the control animals by adventitious reinforcement. All the differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other‐behavior animals developed “other” behavior—the same distinctive pattern of waiting at the foodcup—but there was no direct evidence that it contributed in any way to the decrement in lever pressing.

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