Temporal parameters of self-controlled behavior in humans

Abstract

Self-controlled behavior, defined as refraining from taking a reward until an external criterion is reached, was study with 36 participants that were exposed to pairs of TV videos which were available according to the following contingency. An attempt to play the first video (SR1) turned off it and cancelled the second video (SR2) presentation, otherwise SR2 could be played. Four SR1 durations were programmed according to three repetitive time cycles (T cycle) of different length each one. The obtained duration of SR1 de percentage of SR2 delivered per session were lower as SR1 duration was lengthened and this effect was higher with longer T cycles. These findings show the viability of this type of procedure to study self-controlled behavior.

Keywords

• Temporal parameters
• self-controlled behavior
• TV videos
• humans