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Pecks by pigeons on a response key produced an ON state during which intermittent rewards were freely available, i.e., independently of responding. Pecks during the ON state caused it to remain ON. If no pecks occurred, the state changed to OFF—the key color changed—and rewards were not presented. The state remained OFF until the next response. Thus, responses controlled the state in the chamber but did not cause immediate reinforcement. Four dimensions of the schedule were varied: the rates of response‐independent rewards during ON; the duration of ON produced by each peck; the pattern of rewards during ON; and the presence vs absence of exteroceptive cues during ON and OFF. The results showed that rates of responding were primarily controlled by the duration of ON produced by each response. When each response caused a long period of ON, pecks occurred infrequently; when each response caused a brief period of ON, pecks were frequent.

Litter is an especially large and costly problem in unsupervised high‐use recreational areas. This study investigated procedures to induce visitors to remove litter from an unsupervised U.S. Forest Service area in which signs attached to two litter stations instructed people to pick up and deposit litter. A small sum of money or chances on a larger sum given for participation usually resulted in more bags of litter being picked up per week. Although only a small proportion of the area's users participated in the project, ground surveys indicated the areas sampled were somewhat freer of litter during the payment condition. The results suggest that small monetary rewards may be a promising approach to litter control in unsupervised as well as supervised areas.

Pigeons were trained under concurrent chain schedules in which the initial links were equal aperiodic schedules and the terminal links were fixed‐interval schedules. Choice proportions in the initial links were measured in 26 experimental conditions. The data showed the inadequacy of previous models of concurrent chain performance. A new model was suggested in which choice is a joint function of terminal‐link times, overall reinforcement rates, and terminal‐link entries. This model accounted for 94% of the variance in the present data and for substantial percentages of the variance in previously reported data. The model simplifies to matching between response ratios and obtained reinforcement rate ratios for simple concurrent schedule performance.

A field application of behavior modification studied the relative effectiveness of different prompting procedures for increasing the probability that customers entering a grocery store would select their soft drinks in returnable rather than nonreturnable containers. Six different 2‐hr experimental conditions during which bottle purchases were recorded were (1) No Prompt (i.e., control), (2) one student gave incoming customers a handbill urging the purchase of soft drinks in returnable bottles, (3) distribution of the handbill by one student and public charting of each customer's bottle purchases by another student, (4) handbill distribution and charting by a five‐member group, (5) handbills distributed and purchases charted by three females. The variant prompting techniques were equally effective, and in general increased the percentage of returnable‐bottle customers by an average of 25%.

Six nulliparous female mice were trained to bar press with bar pressing reinforced by the opportunity to retrieve pups to the nest. Then, responses on one bar produced the opportunity to retrieve pups, while responses on a second bar produced sensory contact with non‐retrievable pups, presented behind a screen door. All subjects emitted more responses on the bar yielding retrievable pups. When the bar‐pup contingency was reversed, five subjects learned to press the opposite bar for retrievable pups. The sixth subject showed extinction of responding on the bar that had previously yielded retrievable pups, but failed to press the other bar. A major portion of the reinforcing value of pup presentation resulted from the opportunity to perform the behavior of pup retrieving. This finding supports theoretical formulations which state that the performance of species‐typical consummatory behaviors should have reinforcing properties.

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