Patterns of Matching and Systems with Internality

In this work, we describe a theoretical model that predicts the existence of three patterns of subjects’ behavior in an experimental chamber with concurrent schedules of reinforcements. Two of these patterns were found earlier by Baum (2002). The model is based on the assumption that an organism is a system with internality and that the alternatives are polarized for the subject: one of them plays the role of the positive pole and the other that of the negative pole. Polarization may be independent of the alternatives’ richness with food. We demonstrate that the generalized matching law can be regarded as an empirical approximation of the theoretical equation, which connects the system’s internal variable with the influence of the environment and probabilities of alternatives choosing. The Generalized Matching Law (Baum, 1974) shows the relation between responses and reinforcements in the experiments with concurrent schedules of reinforcements: log log log N N c n n b 2 1 2 1 = + , (1) where N1 and N2 are numbers of responses and n1 and n2 are numbers of corresponding reinforcements in one experimental session. Parameters c and b are constant during the entire set of sessions in which schedule intervals vary from session to session for each key. It was found later (Baum et al., 1999) that when pigeons were exposed to a pair of concurrent VI schedules long enough, the behavior ratio deviated systematically from equation (1). Fig.1. Baum’s patterns.