Acquisition with partial and continuous reinforcement in rat magazine approach.
Partial reinforcement, compared with continuous reinforcement, is widely considered detrimental to Pavlovian conditioned responding. However, time-accumulation models predict an invariance in acquisition when learning is assessed as a function of number of reinforcements, not trials, and intertrial interval is held constant. Three experiments examined this prediction in a rat magazine-approach procedure. All experiments showed superior responding with continuous reinforcement. Experiments 1 and 3 used common tests in between- and within-subject designs, respectively. Experiment 2 showed the same pattern in a discrimination. Earlier results are reanalyzed informally and in a meta-analysis. Contrary to previous summaries of the literature, evidence points to superior conditioned responding with continuous reinforcement in a number of procedures. Results are generally consistent with traditional associative models of learning.
Gottlieb
Daniel A
DA
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. dag@ruccs.rutgers.edu
D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D013997:Time Factors