Abstract
Rats were trained to traverse a straight runway under conditions of consistent reinforcement (CR), partial reinforcement (PR), or nonreinforcement (NR). Thereafter, all Ss received 2 extinction days of 40 nonreinforced trials each. The usual PRE was observed on Day 1 of extinction. During Day 2, PR and CR Ss ceased to respond differently and converged on the level of performance of the control (NR) group. Greater spontaneous recovery occurred for CR than PR Ss. These data suggest that the PRE disappears if the number of nonreinforced trials is sufficiently great to allow the extinction of incentive motivation.
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Black, R.W., Schumpert, J. & Woodard, C. Terminal extinction performance of a running response following consistent and partial reinforcement and nonreinforcement. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 1, 104–106 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334308
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334308