Two experiments examined the impact of depression and anxiety on the microstructure of human schedule responding. Human participants responded by pressing a computer key for points on a multiple random ratio (RR) random interval (RI) schedule. The RI schedule was yoked to the RR schedule in terms of reinforcement rate within subject. Overall response rates were higher on the RR compared to the RI schedule. In both experiments, the presence of psychometrically-measured depressive traits reduced overall levels of responding. Depressive traits also decreased within-bout responding, but increased levels of bout-initiation responding. These findings regarding the microstructure of responding were not noted for anxiety traits. These results suggest that depression impacts learning by working through a number of different mechanisms – both impacting the perceived value of the reinforcer, and possibly by creating a bias to attend and process external cues associated with reinforcement which are taken to control response-initiation rates.

两个实验检验了抑郁和焦虑对人类日程反应微观结构的影响。人类参与者通过按多个随机比率 (RR) 随机间隔 (RI) 计划上的点的计算机键进行响应。就受试者内的强化率而言，RI 计划与 RR 计划相关。与 RI 计划相比，RR 的总体响应率更高。在这两个实验中，心理测量测量的抑郁特征的存在降低了整体反应水平。抑郁特征也降低了回合内的反应，但增加了回合开始的反应水平。这些关于反应微观结构的发现没有注意到焦虑特征。