title: Preference pulses induced by reinforcement.
abstract: Eight rats responded on concurrent Variable-Ratio 20 Extinction schedules for food reinforcement. The assignment of variable-ratio reinforcement to a left or right lever varied randomly following each reinforcer, and was cued by illumination of a stimulus light above that lever. Postreinforcement preference levels decreased substantially and reliably over time when the lever that just delivered reinforcement was now in extinction; however, if that lever was once again associated with variable ratio, this decrease in same-lever preference tended to be small, and for some subjects, not in evidence. The changes in preference level to the extinction lever were well described by a modified version of Killeen, Hanson, and Osborne's (1978) induction model. Consistent with this model's attribution of preference change to induction, we attribute preference change in this report to a brief period of reinforcer-induced arousal that energizes responding to the lever that delivered the last reinforcer. After a few seconds, this induced responding diminishes, and the operant responding that remains comes under the control of the stimulus light cuing the lever providing variable-ratio reinforcement.
authors.affiliation: Keio University.
authors.forename: Yosuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hachiga
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakagami
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silberberg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar / Q000523:psychology; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology
keywords: arousal; choice; induction; lever press; preference pulse; rats; win-stay