Brief stimuli as context

• Context is a stimulus that provides global information about reinforcement rate.
• Stimuli that provide local information have substantially different effects than context.
• Brief stimuli can provide global and local information effectively.
• Brief and continuous stimuli function similarly as contextual stimuli.

Context may be defined as a stimulus that provides global information about the reinforcement rate in the current environment. Twenty-four rats were trained in lever boxes with different stimuli serving as context on different sessions. The goal of the first experiment was to determine whether or not brief stimuli provide global information as effectively as continuous stimuli. The sessions contained brief stimuli at random times throughout the sessions, a continuous stimulus throughout the session, both brief and continuous stimuli, or neither. Results indicated that brief and continuous stimuli provided similar global information (i.e., they served as contextual stimuli). The goal of the second experiment was to determine the differential effects brief stimuli have on behavior when they provide either global or local information. The conclusion was that stimuli that provide local information regarding the time of reinforcement affect the time of responses, and that stimuli that provide global information affect response rate.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: insert SI title.