Rats received three-trial series on a T-maze consisting of extended visually distinct left-black and right-striped side runways. During the first phase of training, when allowed to select baited runways within these series, they predominantly alternated their choices. During the second phase, rats received forced-choice serial pattern training of series consisting of two rewarded (R) trials and one nonrewarded (N) trial in two fixed orders, RRN and RNR. In Experiment 1, the rats in the runway shift rule group always received the second R trial when forced down a runway opposite that on the preceding trial in the series and the N trial when forced down the same runway. The rats in the runway stay rule group always received the second R trial when forced down the same runway and the N trial when forced down the opposite runway. In Experiment 2, each rat was conditionally trained with both runway outcome rules as determined by the central alley lighting and the type of food in the side alleys. The rats took longer to reduce their running speed on the N trial within each sequence under the runway stay rule than under the runway shift rule. They also took longer to acquire serial pattern responding for the RNR than for the RRN series only under the runway stay rule condition. When subsequently reexposed to series of free-choice trials on the final phase, rats maintained spontaneous alternating choice patterns under the runway shift rule conditions but either seldom alternated their choices (Experiment 1) or greatly reduced choice alternations (Experiment 2) under the runway stay rule condition. We discussed these effects in terms of rats' natural foraging strategies and as a factor that interacts with other within- and between-series variables that affect serial pattern behavior.
Rats were exposed to three-trial series consisting of reinforced (R) trials and one nonreinforced (N) trial in a fixed order, RRN and RNR (Experiments 1 and 2) or NRR and RRN (Experiment 3), on extended visually distinct runways in a T-maze. When initially presented with the same sequence on each series in a session (separate presentations) with the same runway on all trials within a series (Experiments 1 and 3), all the rats developed slower running speeds on N than on R trials. When a runway was sometimes changed between the first and next two trials during separate presentations training (Experiment 2) or both sequences were later intermixed within each session in each experiment, only rats exposed to each sequence on a specific runway maintained these serial running patterns. Rats displayed serial running patterns on a test RNN sequence similar to that on the RNR sequence (Experiment 2), as would be predicted by an intertrial association model of serial pattern learning (Capaldi & Molina, 1979), but responded on test RRR and NRN sequences (Experiment 3) as would be predicted by an ordinal-trialtag/intratrial association model (Burns, Wiley, & Payne, 1986). Results from test series of free-choice trials in Experiments 1 and 2 failed to support a prediction of the intratrial association model that these rats would integrate RRN and RNR sequences. Rather than always selecting a baited runway on both the second and the third free-choice trials, the rats only selected a baited runway on the third trial on the basis of their choice on the second trial, as would be predicted by the intertrial association model. Only after experiencing all possible outcome sequences during forced-choice training in Experiment 3 did these rats predominantly select a baited runway on every free-choice trial.
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