Local constraint of the contingent response controls rates of wheel-running and lever-pressing on an interval schedule of wheel-running reinforcement

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 101611
Author(s):  
Terry W. Belke ◽  
W. David Pierce ◽  
Christine A. Sexton ◽  
Monica H. Zahl
Keyword(s):  
Wheel Running ◽  
Interval Schedule ◽  
Local Constraint ◽  
Contingent Response ◽  
Lever Pressing

Sucrose Concentration as Reinforcement for Lever Pressing by Monkeys

1956 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Conrad ◽  
Murray Sidman
Keyword(s):  
Food Deprivation ◽  
Rhesus Monkeys ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Sucrose Concentration ◽  
Variable Interval ◽  
Variable Interval Schedule ◽  
Interval Schedule ◽  
Satiation Effect ◽  
Low Concentrations ◽  
Lever Pressing

3 rhesus monkeys were given various concentrations of sucrose for lever pressing on a variable interval schedule of reinforcement. 7 sucrose concentrations were studied at 2 levels of food deprivation. The response rates accelerated rapidly with increasing concentrations, and then declined after reaching a maximum, generally between 15 and 30% sucrose concentration. The decline was attributed to a satiation effect. The higher level of food deprivation tended to increase the response rate at all but the extreme high and low concentrations.

Determinants of behavioral response with ozone exposure

1986 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 868-875 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Tepper ◽  
B. Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Behavioral Response ◽  
Wheel Running ◽  
Food Delivery ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
Behavioral Effects ◽  
Ozone Exposure ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Active Response ◽  
Lever Pressing

Three separate experiments were performed to evaluate how the topography of a behavioral response and its consequences influence the behavioral effects produced by ozone (O3) exposure. The first experiment measured the responding of food-deprived rats working to obtain intermittent delivery of small pellets of food by completing an active response, wheel running. Low O3 concentrations (0.12 ppm) reduced the frequency of running responses maintained by this fixed-interval 10-min schedule of food delivery. The second experiment examined the effects of O2 on food-deprived rats performing a response (nose poking) that required minimal physical effort to produce deliveries of food pellets. Rats in this situation began to show reductions in responding at 0.5 ppm O3. A third experiment showed that responses requiring minimal physical effort, such as lever pressing, can be a sensitive index of O3 exposure if the response provides access to wheel running. We concluded that increased physical activity during exposure appeared to be an important variable in determining sensitivity to O3 exposure.

Reinforcement and Punishment of Behavior by the Same Consequent Event

1977 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 1015-1021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Barrett ◽  
John R. Glowa
Keyword(s):  
Discriminative Stimulus ◽  
Electric Shock ◽  
Squirrel Monkeys ◽  
Food Presentation ◽  
Fixed Interval ◽  
Interval Schedule ◽  
Fixed Interval Schedule ◽  
Environmental Stimulus ◽  
Shock Presentation ◽  
Lever Pressing

In daily sessions, lever-pressing by each of two squirrel monkeys was maintained under two different conditions. During one condition responding that had been maintained initially under a 5-min. fixed-interval schedule of food presentation was suppressed when every 30th response produced an electric shock. In the presence of a different discriminative stimulus responding that initially postponed electric shock (avoidance) was ultimately maintained when responding instead produced shock under a 5-min. fixed-interval schedule. Thus responding was suppressed by shock presentation during one condition (punishment) and was maintained by the presentation of an identical shock during a second condition (reinforcement). Whether an environmental stimulus exerts reinforcing or punishing effects on behavior can depend on characteristics other than the nature of the event.

Duration of wheel-running reinforcement: Effects on reinforcement value and motivation in free-feeding and food-deprived rats.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Belke ◽  
W. David Pierce ◽  
Ian E. A. Cathart
Keyword(s):  
Wheel Running ◽  
Food Reinforcement ◽  
Variable Interval ◽  
Automatic Reinforcement ◽  
Lever Pressing ◽  
Long Evans ◽  
Free Feeding ◽  
Reinforcement Value ◽  
Wheel Activity ◽  
Reinforcement Duration

Ten (pair housed) female Long-Evans rats were exposed to 5 s, 30 s, and 90 s wheel-running reinforcement durations on a response-initiated variable interval 20 s schedule as food deprivation was manipulated. On free feeding, never-deprived rats showed low wheel running and lever-pressing rates with long postreinforcement pauses (PRPs) for the 5-s reinforcement duration. Subsequently, when food deprived (Deprived 1), rats showed no effect of reinforcement duration on all measures. Under a second deprived condition (Deprived 2) with the rats maintained in single cages, there was no effect of housing (single vs. paired). When data from both deprivation assessments (Deprived 1 and Deprived 2) were combined, rats showed lower wheel running and overall lever-pressing rates with longer pauses on the 90-s duration compared to 30 s and 5 s bouts of wheel activity. The pattern of results challenges a reinforcement value interpretation, but is consistent with shifts in the motivational basis of wheel running. On free feeding, never-deprived rats were intrinsically motivated to run on wheels and operant lever-pressing was maintained at moderate rates by the automatic reinforcement of wheel running, except at the short reinforcement duration (5 s). When food deprived, motivation became food-related and rats showed high rates of lever pressing even at the shortest duration. The weak effects under initial deprivation (Deprived 1) raise questions about equivalence between wheel-running reinforcement duration and reinforcement magnitude using food reinforcement.

The Effect of the Instrumental Training Contingency on Susceptibility to Reinforcer Devaluation

1983 ◽  
Vol 35 (1b) ◽  
pp. 35-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Dickinson ◽  
D. J. Nicholas ◽  
Christopher D. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Ratio Schedule ◽  
Extinction Condition ◽  
Interval Schedule ◽  
Equivalent Amount ◽  
Extinction Performance ◽  
Response Contingent ◽  
Lever Pressing ◽  
Reinforcer Devaluation ◽  
Effective Reinforcer

Two experiments investigated performance of instrumental lever pressing by rats following post-conditioning devaluation of the sucrose reinforcer produced by establishing an aversion to it. In Experiment I rats responded less in an extinction test after being averted from the sucrose following training on a ratio schedule, but not following an equivalent amount of training on an interval schedule. This was true even though the devalued sucrose would not act as an effective reinforcer on either the ratio or interval schedule. Experiment II provided a further investigation of the insensitivity of interval responding to reinforcer devaluation by comparing test performance under simple extinction with responding when the devalued reinforcer was presented on either a response-contingent or non-contingent schedule during the test. Once again simple extinction performance was unaffected by prior reinforcer devaluation. Furthermore, neither non-contingent nor contingent presentations of the devalued reinforcer significantly depressed responding below the level seen in the extinction condition. Ratio, but not interval performance appears to be controlled by knowledge about the instrumental contingency that encodes specific properties of the training reinforcer.

Enhancement of Food-Rewarded Instrumental Responding by an Appetitive Conditioned Stimulus

1981 ◽  
Vol 33 (1b) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Edgar ◽  
Geoffrey Hall ◽  
John M. Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Stimulus ◽  
Variable Interval ◽  
Free Food ◽  
Variable Interval Schedule ◽  
Interval Schedule ◽  
Initial Training ◽  
Minimum Duration ◽  
Baseline Schedule ◽  
Schedule Of Reinforcement ◽  
Lever Pressing

Four experiments are reported in which a stimulus (with a minimum duration of 60 s) signalling the delivery of “free” food was presented to rats lever-pressing for food available on a variable interval schedule. It was found that responding was enhanced in the presence of the stimulus when the baseline schedule of reinforcement was lean (Experiment I) and that the enhancement was dependent upon the pairing of the stimulus with free food (Experiments II and III). Experiment IV showed that an enhancement could be found after initial training in which stimulus-food pairings were given to subjects that were not concurrently lever pressing for food. It is argued that these results are consistent with the suggestion that an appetitive conditioned stimulus can energise appetitive instrumental behaviour.

scholarly journals Prenatally undernourished rats show increased preference for wheel running v. lever pressing for food in a choice task

2008 ◽  
Vol 101 (6) ◽  
pp. 902-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Miles ◽  
Jason Landon ◽  
Michael Davison ◽  
Christian U. Krägeloh ◽  
Nichola M. Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Maternal Nutrition ◽  
Wheel Running ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Response Lever ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Biological Origin ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Lever Pressing

Maternal nutrition during pregnancy has a significant influence in establishing patterns of metabolism and postnatal behaviours in offspring, and therefore shapes their risk of developing disorders in later life. Although it is well established that a mismatch between food consumption and energy expenditure leads to obesity and metabolic dysregulation, little research has investigated the biological origin of such behaviour. We conducted the present experiments to investigate effects of early-life nutrition on preference between wheel running and lever pressing for food during adult life. To address this issue we employed a well-established experimental approach in the rat which has shown that offspring of mothers undernourished during pregnancy develop obesity and metabolic disorders when kept under standard laboratory conditions. Using this experimental approach, two studies were conducted where offspring of ad libitum-fed dams and dams undernourished throughout pregnancy were given the choice between wheel running and pressing a response lever for food. Across subsequent conditions, the rate at which the response lever provided food was varied from 0·22 to 6·0 (study 1) and 0·19 to 3·0 (study 2) pellets per min. Compared with the control group, offspring from dams undernourished during pregnancy showed a consistently greater preference for running over lever pressing for food throughout both experiments of the study. The results of the present study provide experimental evidence that a mother's nutrition during pregnancy can result in a long-term shift in her offspring's lifestyle choices that are relevant to obesity prevention. Such a shift, if endorsed, will have substantial and wide-ranging health consequences throughout the lifespan.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document