Abstract
Experiments 1, 2, and 3 showed that food-deprived rats responding for food pellets made significantly more long-duration leverpresses than water-deprived rats responding for water drops. These experiments further showed that this difference in instrumental response topography is long-lived, and depends neither upon idiosyncrasies of the experimental chamber nor upon severity of deprivation conditions. In Experiment 4, food-deprived rats responding for food pellets made significantly more long-duration leverpresses than did either food- or water-deprived rats responding for sucrose solution. Human judges in Experiment 5 were able to correctly identify instrumental leverpress responses by rats as being for food or water based solely on previous viewings of other rats drinking water or eating food pellets. It appears that instrumental response topographies in rats vary depending principally upon the reinforcer received, and that these instrumental response topographies resemble consummatory response topographies.
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This research was submitted by the author as a dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy degree at Kent State University.
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Hull, J.H. Instrumental response topographies of rats. Animal Learning & Behavior 5, 207–212 (1977). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214080
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214080