Abstract
The present study Investigated acquisition and extinction of free-operant responding when rats’ lever presses produced sucrose pellets after resetting delays of 10 or 20 s. Presses on a second lever cancelled any scheduled food deliveries. Although previous research using 60-s delays failed to demonstrate maintenance of responding across repeated sessions, current findings show that lever pressing can be acquired and maintained with resetting delays. This was demonstrated by both (a) an increase in lever pressing across sessions, and (b) an increase across sessions in the proportion of responding emitted on the lever that produced reinforcement. In addition, responding decreased quickly and substantially when extinction was implemented. This investigation extends previous research showing rats can acquire lever pressing under the resetting/cancellation conditions, and provides evidence that the ability of delayed reinforcers to strengthen responding is a robust phenomenon.
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Vansickel, A., White, V. & Byrne, T. Acquisition and maintenance of lever pressing with prolonged exposure to delayed reinforcement. Psychol Rec 54, 523–530 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395490
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395490