Abstract
Running-wheel behavior was examined as a function of the floor area of the experimental chamber in three food-deprived rats when a food pellet was delivered each minute and when it was omitted. Running-wheel behavior when food was omitted was unsystematically related to the floor area. When food was scheduled, three measures of running-wheel behavior were found to be decreasing functions of floor area: percentage of the session time spent in the wheel, percentage of the interfood intervals with a wheel entry, and the mean stay time per interfood interval with a wheel entry. Wheel revolutions per session varied unsystematically, and the local rate of running was an increasing function of floor area when food was scheduled. These results explicate some inconsistent findings in the literature, and provide support for the notion that wheel-running is not a schedule-induced behavior.
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LOCURTO, C., TRAVERS, T., & TERRACE, H. S. 1975. Effects of physical restraint on the acquisition of autoshaped responses in the pigeon. Paper presented at the sixteenth annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Denver.
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This research was primarily supported by Nimh Grant #Mh21368-01 to R. L. Shull and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Additional support was received from the Faculty Grants Committee of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
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Wetherington, C.L., Brownstein, A.J. & Shull, R.L. Schedule-Induced Running and Chamber Size. Psychol Rec 27, 703–713 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394493
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394493