During discussion of a variety of topics by 2 undergraduates a target response, 1 of 3 affirmatives, was reinforced by one of the discussants by delivery of a nickel. Although nickel delivery increased the frequency of the target response, neither of the 2 subjects could describe the reinforcement contingency until the end of the third session. It was concluded that operant conditioning without awareness occurred even when the response was reinforced by the highly discriminable event of delivery of a nickel.
Five experiments, using rats as subjects, investigated the variables controlling the choice of reinforcer source in situations in which subjects could obtain reinforcers from a freely available source or by performing an operant. Under a wide variety of conditions, subjects almost always obtained their reinforcers from the freely available source. These results are interpreted to indicate that: ( a ) the conditions affecting choice of reinforcer source are not well understood, ( b ) increasing the reward value of the reinforcer does not necessarily increase the relative amount of earned reinforcer consumed and, (c) laboratory rats do not appear to be neophobic in all situations and hence, neophobia cannot be used to explain rats' choice behavior in all siruations involving free and earned reinforcers. Several suggestions are made concerning the design of experiments investigating choice between free and earned reinforcers.
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