Stimulus change dishabituates 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 b...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioural processes 2005-11, Vol.70 (3), p.235-246
Main Authors: McSweeney, Frances K., Kowal, Benjamin P., Murphy, Eric S., Wiediger, Roberta S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animal ethology
Biological and medical sciences
Conditioning
Dishabituation
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Habituation
Learning. Memory
Lever press
Mammalia
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rats
Vertebrata
Water
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:0376-6357
1872-8308
DOI:10.1016/j.beproc.2005.07.004