Varying the temporal placement of a drinking opportunity in a fixed-interval schedule.
Three rats, lever pressing for food delivered on a fixed-interval 128-s schedule, were presented with a 16-s opportunity to drink from a retractable water source. The temporal placement of the water probe within the reinforcement cycle was varied sequentially, in steps of 16 s. Although the lever-pressing pattern was modulated by the intercalated water probe, water consumption during the probe itself was a decreasing function of time from the following reinforcer. These results were interpreted as evidence against the notion that schedule-induced drinking is a "ubiquitous" phenomenon and are congruent with results from other "intruded stimulus" experiments.
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Cd. Universitaria, D.F., Mexico.
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Avila
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Bruner
D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D004326:Drinking; D004327:Drinking Behavior; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D009042:Motivation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule