Abstract
Groups of albino rats were trained for 24 days in a straight runway with one of two different liquid sucrose concentrations, 30% or 3%, as reward. Training trials were administered 2/day with an intertrial interval (ITI) of 3-5 min. This preshift phase was followed by an additional 24 days in which both groups received the 3% solution. A significant main effect of reward magnitude developed early in the preshift phase and persisted throughout the postshift phase. Since the number of daily trials and the ITI employed in this experiment have been shown in other designs to be optimal for the conditioning of the sensory consequences of responding with sucrose rewards, the data argue against a generalization decrement account of the successive contrast effect.
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This research was supported by the Charles L. Mix Memorial Fund through the Department of Psychology at Georgia Southwestern College. Requests for reprints should be sent to R. A Burns
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Burns, R.A., Burns, D.P. Reduction in sucrose reward magnitude without generalization decrement. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 12, 196–198 (1978). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329669
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329669