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RELATIVE REINFORCING EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT ORAL ETHANOL DOSES IN RHESUS MONKEYS
Author(s) -
Stewart Robert B.,
Wang NianSheng,
Bass April A.,
Meisch Richard A.
Publication year - 2002
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.2002.77-49
Subject(s) - ethanol , reinforcement , self administration , alcohol , zoology , chemistry , toxicology , anesthesia , psychology , medicine , biology , biochemistry , social psychology
The relative reinforcing effects of different doses of orally delivered ethanol were evaluated. Mouth‐contact responding by rhesus monkeys was measured under concurrent fixed‐ratio fixed‐ratio schedules of liquid delivery (0.67 ml/delivery) from each of two spouts during daily 3‐hr sessions. Experiment 1 examined persistence of responding with ethanol (2%, 8%, and 32% wt/vol) and water available. When fixed‐ratio values from 8 to 128 were tested, the number of ethanol deliveries obtained per session decreased as the response requirement increased. The decrease in deliveries was less at higher than at lower ethanol concentrations, however. Experiment 2 examined choice between two ethanol concentrations under concurrent fixed‐ratio 16 schedules (4% vs. 8%, 4% vs. 16%, 8% vs. 16%, 2% vs. 8%, 2% vs. 32%, 8% vs. 32%). Higher concentrations (16%, 32%) generally maintained more responding than concurrently available concentrations of 8% or less. An exception was the observation of a preference for 8% over 32% ethanol. When the fixed‐ratio value was increased, however, the relative preference for these two doses was reversed so that 32% ethanol maintained more responding than 8% ethanol. Thus, the direction of the preference depended on the size of the response requirement. These results indicate that the reinforcing effects of ethanol increase with dose.