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Escape from Noise by Rats and Undermatching

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Abstract

Responses of four albino rats on two levers were followed by escape from 111 dB white noise according to pairs of concurrent variable-interval schedules. Stable, moderate responding was maintained. There was substantial undermatching of relative response rate to relative reinforcement rate. Several alternative explanations for this deviation from matching are suggested.

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This research was supported in part by the Department of Psychology, Harvard University. The author is a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. Thanks for assistance with various parts of the research are due to R. Herrnstein, W. Baum, P. de Villiers, D. Loveland, and V. Upham.

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Logue, A.W. Escape from Noise by Rats and Undermatching. Psychol Rec 28, 273–280 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394536

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394536

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