title: Running response reinforcement by food-hoarding in the golden hamster.
abstract: Partial reinforcement (PR) effects on animal locomotor behavior were studied in the golden hamster, using food-hoarding activity as a reinforcer. The first experiment demonstrated that hoarding reinforces a running response towards the goal section of a straight-alley runway, and that no such learning occurs when sated hamsters were not allowed to hoard food. However, a second experiment using various partial reinforcement schedules and a continuous reinforcement schedule did not give any evidence for the existence of a partial reinforcement acquisition effect (PRAE). The third experiment confirmed these results with an extended training procedure and showed a slight partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) mainly in the first sessions of the extinction phase.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale et Comparée, Université PaulValéry, BP 5043, 34032 Montpellier France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Launay