Incentive Theory III: Adaptive Clocks

Incentive theory is extended to address the phenomenon of autoshaping. To do so, it is necessary to permit the speed of the animal's internal clock to vary with rates of reinforcement; clock speed is the basis for the animal's calculations of reinforcement densities. This notion of an "adaptive clock" is consistent with other effects, such as the partial-reinforcement extinction effect, and permits us to deal with the various experimental manipulations that are found in autoshaping experiments from a unified perspective.