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BASELINE DEPENDENT FACILITATION: EFFECTS OF A PRE‐REWARD STIMULUS
Author(s) -
REMINGTON R. E.,
STRONGMAN K. T.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1972.tb01310.x
Subject(s) - psychology , reinforcement , peck (imperial) , stimulus (psychology) , facilitation , stimulus control , audiology , conditioning , developmental psychology , neutral stimulus , classical conditioning , neuroscience , social psychology , cognitive psychology , statistics , medicine , mathematics , agronomy , nicotine , biology
Two groups of six pigeons were trained to key‐peck on either a VI or a DRL schedule of positive reinforcement. After response rates were stable subjects were presented with one of the following combinations of a signal and free reward over several sessions. For one subgroup of three birds in each group, an auditory stimulus was paired with free reward whilst birds were prevented from making the operant response. Birds in the remaining subgroups received random presentations of the stimulus and free reward. When the conditioned stimulus alone was presented at random intervals during normal key‐peck sessions for three days, no consistent effects on response rate were observed. Further respondent conditioning sessions followed, after which the effects of the conditioned stimulus were tested against ongoing behaviour, or during extinction of the operant response. Birds retested on the baseline again showed little effect. Of birds tested during extinction, those receiving pairings of the conditioned stimulus and reward showed facilitation of responding during the stimulus, whilst those who had received random presentations showed a slight suppression.