The relation between resistance to change and preference in pigeons with concurrent chained schedules

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the relation between resistance to change and preference, hour pigeons responded in concurrent chained schedules in which variable-interval (VI) 60-s schedules were arranged in the initial link. In Experiment 1, VI and fixed-interval (FI) schedules of equal mean reinforcement rates were arranged in the teminal link. Response rates were higher in the initial link leading to VI terminal link. Under the prefeeding test, the initial-link response rates leading to VI terminal link were more resistant to change than were those leading to FI terminal link, but under the extinction test there were no consistent differences between the two initial-link response rates. In Experiment 2, FI value of the terminal link was manipulated so that pigeons maintained approximately equal responding in the initial link. The two initial-link response rates showed equal resistance to change under the prefeeding and extinction tests. Thus, the data suggest that although the use of extinction as a manipulation to study resistance to change is questioned, resistance to change and preference are different measures of a single object.