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Pigeons' keypecking was maintained under two- and three-component chained schedules of food presentation. The component schedules were all fixed-interval schedules of either 1- or 2-min duration. Across conditions the presence of houselight illumination within each component schedule was manipulated. For each pigeon, first-component response rates increased significantly when the houselight was extinguished in the first component and illuminated in the second. The results suggest that the increase was not the result of disinhibition or modification of stimulus control by component stimuli, but appears to result from the reinforcement of responding by the onset of illumination in the second component. Additionally, the apparent reinforcing properties of houselight illumination resulted neither from association of the houselight with the terminal component of the chained schedule nor through generalization of the hopper illumination present during food presentation. The results of the present series of experiments are related to previous demonstrations of illumination-reinforced responding and to the interpretation of data from experiments employing houselight illumination as stimuli associated with timeout or brief stimuli in second-order schedules.

Located near the Tampa Bay area in southwestern Florida, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) at Bradenton is a new 109,000 ft 2 (10,130 m2), innovative, problem-based learning facility for 600 medical students. Built at a price of 25 million, the all-precast concrete, three-story structure was delivered in a very compressed schedule, with medical students arriving for classes in September 2004, only 14 months from the onset of design. Planning and building LECOM from the outside in toward the center, a rapid delivery team made maximum use of economies of precast concrete prefabrication, production, and erection schemes. This precast concrete solution proved superior to cast-in-place concrete and structural steel alternatives in aesthetic appeal, total project cost, structural durability, and particularly in its remarkably rapid completion. With white-aggregate concrete encompassing a blue central skylight, this impressive medical education center offers state-of-the-art wireless classrooms and forensic laboratories in a striking facility that is both architecturally beautiful and thoroughly modern.