Effects of auditory stimuli correlated with different probabilities of water delivery in a limited-hold temporal schedule

Four rats were exposed to two different tone frequencies, each tone being correlated with independent probabilities of water delivery in a temporally defined schedule. The schedule consisted of a 60-s T cycle, with 30-s t(D) and t(Delta) succesive subcycles. t(D) and t(Delta) were assigned complementary probabilities of water delivery (1.0-0, 0.75-0.25, 0.5-0.5 and 1.0-0) in succesive phases. Each of the first three experimental phases was followed by five consecutive probe sessions using the same probability values, and in which water was delivered independently of responding at the end of each subcycle. Three additional rats were exposed to the same conditions, except that only one tone was used in t(D) and t(Delta). The highest frequencies of responding were observed in two of the rats exposed to differential tone frequencies, an effect that was correlated with lower percentages of lost water deliveries, shorter response latencies, and less variability in the intervals between successive water presentations. In the last phase in which probabilities of water delivery in t(D) and t(Delta) were 1.0 and 0, respectively, response frequency was always higher in t(Delta). These results suggest that the number of water deliveries obtained in the early cycles of every session were responsible for the total number of responses and its correlated effects.     

Stimulus change dis-habituates operant responding supported by water reinforcers

The present experiment examined whether habituation contributes to within-session decreases in operant responding for water reinforcers. The experiment asked if this responding can be dishabituated, a fundamental property of habituated behavior. During baseline, rats’ lever pressing was reinforced by water on a variable interval 15-s schedule. During experimental conditions, rats responded on the same schedule and a new stimulus was introduced for 5 min at 15, 30 or 45 min into the 60-min session. The new stimulus was extinction, continuous reinforcement or flashing lights in different conditions. Rate of responding primarily decreased within the session during baseline. Introducing a new stimulus sometimes suppressed (extinction, continuous reinforcement) and sometimes increased (flashing lights) responding while it was in effect. The new stimulus increased responding after it ended and before it was presented in the session. The results are incompatible with the idea that non-habituation satiety factors (e.g., cellular hydration and blood volume) contributed to within-session changes in responding. These satiety factors should increase with increases in consumption, decrease with decreases in consumption and remain constant with constant consumption of water. Nevertheless, all stimulus changes increased operant responding for water. These results support the idea that habituation contributes to within-session decreases in responding for water reinforcers.     

Stimulus control over induction produced by upcoming food-pellet reinforcement

Research has demonstrated that rats increase their rate of lever pressing for sucrose reinforcement when food-pellet reinforcement will soon be available within the session. Recent results suggest that this increase occurs because stimuli in the session come to signal different levels of overall reinforcement. The present experiment tested this idea by having rats respond in two types of session. In one, they pressed lever A for 1% sucrose reinforcers in the first half of the session and lever B for food-pellet reinforcers in the second half (the opposing lever was retracted in the respective half). In the other, they pressed lever B for 1% sucrose reinforcers in the first half and lever A for 1% sucrose reinforcers in the second. Thus, the presence of lever A in the first half of the session was predictive of upcoming food-pellet reinforcement, but only lever B was ever used to obtain food pellets. Subjects responded at a higher rate on lever B in the first half of the session than on lever A, despite food-pellet reinforcement being unavailable in such sessions. Furthermore, they responded at a higher rate on lever B during probe sessions in which both levers were available. These results demonstrate that stimulus control over induction occurs when a stimulus becomes differentially associated with a heightened level of reinforcement. However, questions remain as to whether this association is Pavlovian or whether stimuli with "predictive value" may ever lead to induction.     

Reinforcement omission in concurrent fixed-interval and random-interval schedules

The present experiment examined overall and local effects of omission of reinforcers in a choice situation. Pigeons' key-pecking responses were reinforced under concurrent fixed-interval and random-interval schedules of food presentation. After some weeks of baseline sessions in which the probability of reinforcement was 1.00, approximately 25% of food presentations from the fixed-interval schedule were omitted and replaced by timeout periods. In such omission sessions, the overall relative rates of responding to the fixed-interval schedule became lower than those in the baseline sessions. On the other hand, when relative rates of responding to the fixed-interval schedule in the omission sessions were calculated separately for fixed-interval cycles preceded by timeout periods and those preceded by food presentations, the relative rates in the former type of fixed-interval cycles were higher than those in the latter type for three out of four pigeons. These results mean that relative rates of responding cannot always be regarded as reflecting a relative value of an alternative, and that the overall effect of the omission of fixed-interval reinforcers is not reducible to the local effect of omission.     

Extinguished operant responding shows stimulus specificity

The experiment tested for stimulus specificity in extinguished operant responding. Eight pigeons pecked keys for food reinforcers delivered by a variable interval (VI) 60-s schedule. The key was illuminated with red light during some sessions and white light during others. Then, responding was placed on extinction. During some sessions of extinction, the color of the key light remained constant throughout the session (red or white). During other sessions the color changed at 30 min into the session (red to white or white to red). Response rate increased after the change of key color in extinction. If it is assumed that key color is part of the stimulus to which subjects habituate, then these results are consistent with McSweeney and Swindell's [J. Gen. Psychol. 129 (2002) 364] suggestion that responding declines in extinction partly because subjects habituate to the stimuli that support conditioned responding. Habituation is relatively specific to the exact nature of the stimulus presented. Therefore, changes in the stimulus violate stimulus specificity and restore habituated responding. The results are also consistent with other theories that attribute extinction to a reduction of stimulus control [e.g., Psychol. Bull. 114 (1993) 80; J. Exp. Psychol.: Anim. Behav. Process. 16 (1990) 235], but considerations such as parsimony and testability favor the habituation hypothesis over these theories.     

Demand curves for food in hens: Similarity under fixed-ratio and progressive-ratio schedules

Demand curves were generated for five domestic hens under progressive-ratio 5 schedules of food delivery and under fixed-ratio schedules of food delivery that began at fixed-ratio 5 and were incremented by 5 each session. All sessions ended after 10 consecutive minutes without a response. Although response rates at a given ratio were higher under the progressive-ratio schedule, all hens completed higher ratios under the fixed-ratio schedule. Similar, but not identical, demand curves were generated under progressive-ratio and fixed-ratio schedules. Under both schedules, consumption (reinforcers earned) decreased as cost (ratio size) increased. Data generally were well described by an equation in which elasticity of demand is constant, although an equation in which elasticity could vary accounted for slightly more of the variance.     

Responding for sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement: effect of pre-running

Six male albino Wistar rats were placed in running wheels and exposed to a fixed interval 30-s schedule that produced either a drop of 15% sucrose solution or the opportunity to run for 15s as reinforcing consequences for lever pressing. Each reinforcer type was signaled by a different stimulus. To assess the effect of pre-running, animals were allowed to run for 1h prior to a session of responding for sucrose and running. Results showed that, after pre-running, response rates in the later segments of the 30-s schedule decreased in the presence of a wheel-running stimulus and increased in the presence of a sucrose stimulus. Wheel-running rates were not affected. Analysis of mean post-reinforcement pauses (PRP) broken down by transitions between successive reinforcers revealed that pre-running lengthened pausing in the presence of the stimulus signaling wheel running and shortened pauses in the presence of the stimulus signaling sucrose. No effect was observed on local response rates. Changes in pausing in the presence of stimuli signaling the two reinforcers were consistent with a decrease in the reinforcing efficacy of wheel running and an increase in the reinforcing efficacy of sucrose. Pre-running decreased motivation to respond for running, but increased motivation to work for food.     

Habituation and the reinforcing effectiveness of visual stimuli

The term "sensory reinforcer" has been used to refer to sensory stimuli (e.g. light onset) that are primary reinforcers in order to differentiate them from other more biologically important primary reinforcers (e.g. food and water). Acquisition of snout poke responding for a visual stimulus (5s light onset) with fixed ratio 1 (FR 1), variable-interval 1min (VI 1min), or variable-interval 6min (VI 6min) schedules of reinforcement was tested in three groups of rats (n=8/group). The VI 6min schedule of reinforcement produced a higher response rate than the FR 1 or VI 1min schedules of visual stimulus reinforcement. One explanation for greater responding on the VI 6min schedule relative to the FR 1 and VI 1min schedules is that the reinforcing effectiveness of light onset habituated more rapidly in the FR 1 and VI 1min groups as compared to the VI 6min group. The inverse relationship between response rate and the rate of visual stimulus reinforcement is opposite to results from studies with biologically important reinforcers which indicate a positive relationship between response and reinforcement rate. Rapid habituation of reinforcing effectiveness may be a fundamental characteristic of sensory reinforcers that differentiates them from biologically important reinforcers, which are required to maintain homeostatic balance.     

Breakfast in the nook and dinner in the dining room: time-of-day discrimination in rats

Four studies were conducted which demonstrate that most (63%) male Sprague-Dawley rats can attain criterion, nine correct choices over ten consecutive trials, on a time-of-day discrimination in an elevated T-maze, but that the task is relatively difficult. The discrimination required that the rats go to one goal arm during a morning session and the other in an afternoon session. The sessions always began at the same time and were at least 6 h apart. A larger proportion of rats attained criterion and required fewer trials when the discriminative cue was a maze insert providing visual and tactile stimulation (0.72), orientation and position of the maze in the room (0.88), or the rats were required to always make the same left or right turn (0.94). Also, once criterion was attained, rats trained on time-of-day discrimination only made about 70% correct choices with continued training. Housing the rats with continuous light, all laboratory noises masked with white noise, and a random feeding schedule did not prevent them from acquiring the time-place discrimination. Testing the rats with a random number of trials during morning and afternoon sessions and with added or omitted sessions revealed that the rats did not use response or session alternation strategies to perform the discrimination. Also, the particular experimenter administering the morning or afternoon sessions did not serve as a cue for the discrimination. The relative difficulty of the task suggests that time of day does not normally function as a discriminative stimulus for choices, but probably as a contextual stimulus. Further, performance of the task in the absence of time-of-day cues suggests that the discrimination is based on event memory combined with an internal timing mechanism.     

Response-reinforcer relations and resistance to change

Behavioral momentum theory suggests that the relation between a response and a reinforcer (i.e., response-reinforcer relation) governs response rates and the relation between a stimulus and a reinforcer (i.e., stimulus-reinforcer relation) governs resistance to change. The present experiments compared the effects degrading response-reinforcer relations with response-independent or delayed reinforcers on resistance to change in conditions with equal stimulus-reinforcer relations. In Experiment 1, pigeons responded on equal variable-interval schedules of immediate reinforcement in three components of a multiple schedule. Additional response-independent reinforcers were available in one component and additional delayed reinforcers were available in another component. The results showed that resistance to disruption was greater in the components with added reinforcers than without them (i.e., better stimulus-reinforcer relations), but did not differ for the components with added response-independent and delayed reinforcement. In Experiment 2, a component presenting immediate reinforcement alternated with either a component that arranged equal rates of reinforcement with a proportion of those reinforcers being response independent or a component with a proportion of the reinforcers being delayed. Results showed that resistance to disruption tended to be either similar across components or slightly lower when response-reinforcer relations were degraded with either response-independent or delayed reinforcers. These findings suggest that degrading response-reinforcer relations can impact resistance to change, but that impact does not depend on the specific method and is small relative to the effects of the stimulus-reinforcer relation.     

Habituation contributes to the decline in wheel running within wheel-running reinforcement periods

Habituation appears to play a role in the decline in wheel running within an interval. Aoyama and McSweeney [Aoyama, K., McSweeney, F.K., 2001. Habituation contributes to within-session changes in free wheel running. J. Exp. Anal. Behav. 76, 289-302] showed that when a novel stimulus was presented during a 30-min interval, wheel-running rates following the stimulus increased to levels approximating those earlier in the interval. The present study sought to assess the role of habituation in the decline in running that occurs over a briefer interval. In two experiments, rats responded on fixed-interval 30-s schedules for the opportunity to run for 45 s. Forty reinforcers were completed in each session. In the first experiment, the brake and chamber lights were repeatedly activated and inactivated after 25 s of a reinforcement interval had elapsed to assess the effect on running within the remaining 20 s. Presentations of the brake/light stimulus occurred during nine randomly determined reinforcement intervals in a session. In the second experiment, a 110 dB tone was emitted after 25 s of the reinforcement interval. In both experiments, presentation of the stimulus produced an immediate decline in running that dissipated over sessions. No increase in running following the stimulus was observed in the first experiment until the stimulus-induced decline dissipated. In the second experiment, increases in running were observed following the tone in the first session as well as when data were averaged over several sessions. In general, the results concur with the assertion that habituation plays a role in the decline in wheel running that occurs within both long and short intervals.     

Haloperidol, dynamics of choice, and the parameters of the matching law

The idea that dopamine mediates the reinforcing effects of stimuli persists in the field of neurosciences. The present study shows that haloperidol, a dopamine antagonist, does not eliminate the reinforcing value of food reinforcers. The ratio of reinforcers changed seven times across two levers within sessions, modeling a dynamic environment. The magnitude of the reinforcer was manipulated independently of the reinforcer ratio. Four doses of intraperitoneal haloperidol were assessed over periods of 12 daily sessions. Haloperidol did not impair the discrimination that the rats established between rich and lean levers; the response distributions favored the lever associated with the higher probability of reinforcement and the larger pellets. The parameters of the generalized matching law (bias and sensitivity) were used to estimate effects of haloperidol upon the motor system and upon the rats' motivation for food reinforcers.     

Spatial frequency discrimination for sinewave gratings with random, bandpass frequency modulation: evidence for averaging in spatial acuity

Spatial frequency difference thresholds for vertical, high contrast sinewave gratings were estimated at 1.25, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 cyc deg-1. Within an experiment two independent manipulations of the stimulus were employed: (1) the number of cycles of the sinewave grating was varied over a range of 2.0 to 15.0 cycles; and (2) a stationary, random frequency modulation was imposed on the sinewave. The probability density function of the frequency modulation was a Gaussian whose dispersion coefficient was varied, in different experiments, in the range of 0 to 10% of the frequency of the parent sinewave. Both of these experimental variables were found to affect the precision with which spatial frequency discrimination could be performed. The Weber fraction increased both as the number of cycles present was decreased and as the dispersion coefficient of the modulating function was increased. These two effects were independent. The data support previous psychophysical findings that spatial frequency discrimination involves averaging over the total area of the stimulus and are compatible with spatial primitive models of spatial contrast vision. The data are not compatible with those of Hirsch and Hylton (J. opt. Soc. Am. 72, 1367-1374) which suggest that spatial interval discrimination occurs solely by operation of foveal mechanisms.     

Incubation of conditional suppression is an associatively-based phenomenon

Ten rats were deprived of water and trained to lick a tube for saccharin reinforcement. In each of the two sessions that followed, the rats received six contiguous pairings of a 30-second illumination of the houselight and a 0.75 second, 0.10 mA electric shock while licking. No sign of conditioning was observed during the first experimental session, but profound conditioning was observed on the first and subsequent trials of the second conditioning session. No comparable change in the rate of licking was observed in groups of rats that received only presentations of the visual stimulus, only presentations of the electric shock, or random presentation of the visual stimulus and electric shock during the first conditioning session. These data establish that the incubation of conditional suppression is an associative phenomenon.     

Need probability effects in animal short-term memory

Five pigeons performed in a delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) procedure with five delay durations (0.5, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 s) mixed within sessions. Contrary to the predictions of need probability theory, discriminability decreased when fewer short than long delays were included in each session. To test whether the decrease in discriminability was due to a decrease in obtained reinforcement at short delays, the number of trials at each delay was held constant and reinforcer probability was increased with increasing delay. This manipulation produced a similar decrease in discriminability as when the frequency of delays was manipulated. It was concluded that the effect of delay frequency on the forgetting function is mediated by the effect of the reinforcer distribution, which influences discriminability by weakening stimulus control.     

Reinforcer satiation and resistance to change of responding maintained by qualitatively different reinforcers

In previous research on resistance to change, differential disruption of operant behavior by satiation has been used to assess the relative strength of responding maintained by different rates or magnitudes of the same reinforcer in different stimulus contexts. The present experiment examined resistance to disruption by satiation of one reinforcer type when qualitatively different reinforcers were arranged in different contexts. Rats earned either food pellets or a 15% sucrose solution on variable-interval 60-s schedules of reinforcement in the two components of a multiple schedule. Resistance to satiation was assessed by providing free access either to food pellets or the sucrose solution prior to or during sessions. Responding systematically decreased more relative to baseline in the component associated with the satiated reinforcer. These findings suggest that when qualitatively different reinforcers maintain responding, relative resistance to change depends upon the relations between reinforcers and disrupter types.     

Do rats time filled and empty intervals of equal duration differently?

The goal was to determine whether rats time filled and empty intervals of equal duration differently. Each of five rats was trained for 50 sessions on an instrumental appetitive head entry procedure in which food was available (primed) every 120 s. On "empty" cycles, 30s prior to the next food prime, a 0.5-s pulse of white noise was presented. On "filled" cycles, 30s prior to the next food prime, white noise came on and stayed on until food was delivered. The two types of cycles were presented with equal probability. The results showed that the rats timed both the food-to-food interval and the stimulus-to-food interval. A comparison of the response gradients on filled and empty cycles following stimulus presentation showed better temporal discrimination on filled cycles. The results were modeled using a Packet theory of timing, with a linear averaging rule to combine the temporal information provided by the stimulus and food. The model fits to the individual response gradients were evaluated with a Turing test.     

Performance of mice in an automated olfactometer: odor detection, discrimination and odor memory

Mice were trained on a variety of odor detection and discrimination tasks in 100- or 200-trial sessions using a go, no-go discrete trials operant conditioning procedure. Odors, presented for 1 s on each trial, were generated by an air dilution olfactometer (for threshold tests) and an easily constructed eight-channel liquid dilution unit (for two- and multiple-odor discrimination tasks). Mice rapidly acquired the operant task and demonstrated excellent stimulus control by odor vapors. Their absolute detection threshold for ethyl acetate was similar to that obtained with rats using similar methods. They readily acquired four separate two-odor discrimination tasks and continued to perform well when all eight odors were presented in random order in the same session and when reinforcement probability for correct responding was decreased from 1 to 0.5. Memory for these eight odors, assessed under extinction after a 32 day rest period, was essentially perfect. Time spent sampling the odor on S+ and S- trials was highly correlated with response accuracy. When accuracy was at chance levels (e.g. initial trials on a novel task), stimulus sampling time on both S+ and S- trials was approximately 0.5-0.7 s. As response accuracy increased, sampling time on S+ trials tended to increase and remain higher than sampling time on S- trials.     

Investigations of timing during the schedule and reinforcement intervals with wheel-running reinforcement

Across two experiments, a peak procedure was used to assess the timing of the onset and offset of an opportunity to run as a reinforcer. The first experiment investigated the effect of reinforcer duration on temporal discrimination of the onset of the reinforcement interval. Three male Wistar rats were exposed to fixed-interval (FI) 30-s schedules of wheel-running reinforcement and the duration of the opportunity to run was varied across values of 15, 30, and 60s. Each session consisted of 50 reinforcers and 10 probe trials. Results showed that as reinforcer duration increased, the percentage of postreinforcement pauses longer than the 30-s schedule interval increased. On probe trials, peak response rates occurred near the time of reinforcer delivery and peak times varied with reinforcer duration. In a second experiment, seven female Long-Evans rats were exposed to FI 30-s schedules leading to 30-s opportunities to run. Timing of the onset and offset of the reinforcement period was assessed by probe trials during the schedule interval and during the reinforcement interval in separate conditions. The results provided evidence of timing of the onset, but not the offset of the wheel-running reinforcement period. Further research is required to assess if timing occurs during a wheel-running reinforcement period.     

The role of terminal-link stimuli in concurrent-chain schedules: revisited using a behavioral-history procedure

A behavioral-history procedure was used to study the function of terminal-link stimuli as conditioned reinforcers in multiple concurrent-chain schedules of reinforcement. First, three pigeons were exposed to multiple concurrent-chain schedules in which the two multiple-schedule components were correlated with a blue and a white stimulus, respectively. In each component the initial links were equal independent variable-interval (VI) 15 s schedules. A fixed-interval (FI) 10 s schedule operated on the red key in one terminal link while extinction operated on the green key in the alternative terminal link. When large preferences for the red stimulus had been established, two tests were conducted. In the terminal-link test, under new initial-link stimuli--purple and brown--an FI 10 s schedule operated for both the red and green terminal-link stimuli. In the subsequent initial-link test, the blue and white initial-link stimuli were reintroduced, and, as in the terminal-link test, FI 10s operated for both the red and the green terminal-link stimuli. In the terminal-link test, the three pigeons showed no preference for the terminal links with the red stimulus, but showed clear and consistent preferences for the red stimulus when blue and white stimuli were reintroduced as initial-link stimuli in the initial-link test. This suggests that there are multiple sources of control over initial-link response allocation in concurrent-chains, including control by both terminal- and initial-link stimuli.