A discrete-trials PREE in an operant situation

Three groups of pigeons under different ratio schedules of reinforcement received acquisition and extinction training with a discrete-trials operant procedure. A group with all trials reinforced was less resistant than a 50% reinforcement group. Any increments in resistance to extinction due to variations in number of responses per food presentation were demonstrated to be inadequate to explain this discrete-trials partial-reinforcement extinction effect. It was concluded that discrete-trials resistance to extinction is more sensitive to acquisition variations in reinforcement per trial than in reinforcement per response.