Abstract
Access to a sucrose tube was made contingent upon licks on an empty glass tube. After training on a mult VI 45/VI 45 schedule, separate groups of rats were shifted to either a mult VI 45/ext or a mixed VI 45/ext schedule. Illumination or nonillumination of the operant tube was used as the discriminative stimulus for the multiple group. Substantial stimulus control and behavioral contrast was demonstrated in the multiple-schedule group, but an equivalent increase in response rate was shown in the mixed group. Behavioral contrast was attributed to decrease in reinforcement density subsequent to the shift rather than to behaviors elicited by the predictive value of S+.
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Flaherty, C.F., Clancy, J.A. & Kaplan, P.S. Behavioral contrast in rats with an operant licking response. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 17, 269–272 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333737
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333737