title: Win-stay and win-shift lever-press strategies in an appetitively reinforced task for rats.
abstract: Two experiments examined acquisition of win-stay, win-shift, lose-stay, and lose-shift rules by which hungry rats could earn food reinforcement. In Experiment 1, two groups of rats were trained in a two-lever operant task that required them to follow either a win-stay/lose-shift or a win-shift/lose-stay contingency. The rates of acquisition of the individual rules within each contingency differed: lose-shift and lose-stay rules were acquired faster than win-stay and win-shift rules. Contrary to a number of previous reports, the win-shift rule was acquired less rapidly than any of the other rules. In Experiment 2, the four rules were taught separately, but subjects still acquired the win-shift rule more slowly than any of the other rules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK. p.reed@swansea.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Phil
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reed
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D051381:Rats; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology
keywords: Conditioning chamber; Food; Rats; Spontaneous alternation; Win-shift/lose-stay; Win-stay/lose-shift