| Abstract: | Administered magazine training in 2 experiments to female albino Sprague-Dawley rats under 1 of 3 basic conditions: a 3,000-Hz tone followed by (a) 1 food pellet, (b) 10 food pellets, or (c) a quasi-random mixture of both 1 and 10 food pellets. Ss then learned to press a lever for either a 1-pellet or a 10-pellet reward. Results reveal significant and long-lasting negative-reinforcement contrast. When Ss pressed for 1 pellet after a mixed 1-and-10 pellet pattern during magazine training, they learned to lever-press more slowly than if they had been magazine trained with just the 1-pellet reward. Data do not show positive contrast, however. Results suggest that rats may form "abstractions" about patterns of reinforcing events to which a given reinforcer is compared when it is used to facilitate the acquisition of a new response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
