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Reward expectation modulates variability in path choice in rats

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Abstract

The relationship between behavioral variability and reward expectation has been examined in recent years. This relationship is predictive: when an animal has a low expectation of reinforcement for a particular behavioral set, they engage in high levels of variability in their actions. We conducted two experiments to further investigate this relationship using a novel measure of behavioral variability. In Experiment 1, two groups of rats were trained to travel through a column maze, with many possible reinforced pathways, to receive either their maintenance diet (i.e., chow) or a highly palatable sugary reward (cereal). We hypothesized that animals trained with a maintenance-diet food source (chow) would demonstrate more variation in the pathways taken to the goal location than those animals trained with the highly palatable alternative. In Experiment 2, all rats were trained to travel through the maze to receive alternating outcomes of chow or cereal in a within-subjects design. Results from both experiments indicated that rats emitted greater variability in paths taken to the goal when the reinforcer was the maintenance chow. These results corroborate the relationship between reward and behavioral variability in a new behavioral measure.

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Notes

  1. It is important to note here the relevant contrast between respondent and operant variability in behavior. Increased variability can be generated in situations where the animal is explicitly trained to perform variably in order to obtain reward (e.g., Page and Neuringer 1985; Pryor et al. 1969); such a task engenders operant variability and reinforces variability itself as an operant dimension of behavior, much like an experimenter might reinforce the force or rate of a particular response. Respondent variability, on the other hand, is generated by an animal’s expectation of the delivery of a relevant outcome—in other words, variability is controlled by the Pavlovian relationship between stimuli and subsequent outcomes.

  2. There is a vast literature indicating the powerful motivational qualities of sweet outcomes. Research has demonstrated that rat pups as young as 6 days of age are attracted to sweetness by the elicitation of consummatory responses to solutions of sucrose, lactose, and saccharin (Hall and Bryan 1981; Jacobs 1964; Vigorito and Sclafani 1980). When presented with polycose and sucrose solutions, 9 days old rat pups displayed more consummatory behavior compared to when they were presented with water (Sclafani 1991a). Researchers have found that both appetitive and consummatory responding in rats increases with increasing concentration of sugar in solution (e.g., Collier and Willis 1961; Davis 1973; Schwartz and Grill 1984).

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was supported by the Department of Psychology at the University of Mary Washington. We thank members of the PSYC413 Seminar in Learning for their assistance in data collection. Experimental protocols followed relevant ethical guidelines and were approved by the University of Mary Washington’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Mary Washington (UMW), 1301 College Ave, Fredericksburg, VA, 22401, USA

    Kelly A. Griffith, Emily M. Farnsworth & W. David Stahlman

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  1. Kelly A. Griffith
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  2. Emily M. Farnsworth
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  3. W. David Stahlman
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Correspondence to W. David Stahlman.

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Griffith, K.A., Farnsworth, E.M. & Stahlman, W.D. Reward expectation modulates variability in path choice in rats. Anim Cogn 18, 131–138 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0784-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0784-6

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