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CONDITIONED REINFORCEMENT AND CHOICE
Author(s) -
Nevin J. A.,
Mandell C.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1978.29-135
Subject(s) - lever , reinforcement , psychology , schedule , audiology , duration (music) , signal (programming language) , communication , social psychology , computer science , medicine , acoustics , physics , quantum mechanics , operating system , programming language
In a series of three experiments, rats were exposed to successive schedule components arranged on two levers, in which lever pressing produced a light, and nose‐key pressing produced water in 50% of the light periods. When one auditory signal was presented only during those light periods correlated with water on one lever, and a different signal was presented only during those light periods correlated with nonreinforcement on the other lever, the former lever was preferred in choice trials, and higher rates of responding were maintained on the former lever in nonchoice (forced) trials. Thus, the rats preferred a schedule component that included a conditioned reinforcer over one that did not, with the schedules of primary reinforcement and the information value of the signals equated. Preferences were maintained when one or the other of the auditory signals was deleted, but were not established in naive subjects when training began with either the positive or negative signal only. Discriminative control of nose‐key pressing by the auditory signals was highly variable across subjects and was not correlated with choice.