Strong support for resistance to change being determined by stimulus-reinforcer relations and independent of response-reinforcer relations comes from studies that add response-independent (i.e., free) reinforcement to one stimulus context.
Nevin, Tota, Torquato, and Shull (1990) had pigeons pecking lighted disks on separate variable-interval 60-s schedules of intermittent food reinforcement across two components of a multiple schedule.