Abstract
Two groups of rats distinguished by the number of bar-presses required to complete a trial (FR 1 or FR 5) were given acquisition, extinction, and reacquisition in an instrumental discrimination involving differential reward magnitude (five pellets vs one pellet). The FR 5 group displayed better discrimination and extinguished faster than the FR 1 group. A “reversed magnitude-extinction effect” was found in that the usual between-groups finding of an inverse relation between resistance to extinction and acquisition reward magnitude failed to appear, ie., five-pellet start speeds of both groups remained above one-pellet speeds throughout extinction and there was a nonsignificant tendency for relative extinction rates of start speeds to be faster under one-pellet than five-pellet cues.
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This research was supported by Grant FR-00167 from the National Institutes of Health.
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Davenport, J.W., Flaherty, C.F. Extinction of differential reward magnitude discrimination in a discrete bar-pressing situation. Psychon Sci 14, 29–30 (1969). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336409
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336409