Varied milk delivery contingencies differentially affect sucking in rat pups as measured by jaw-muscle electromyographic activity. In Experiment 1 we found that 11-1 3-day-old pups sucked more frequently when receiving tiny intermittent pulses of milk than when receiving no milk, and continued to suck at a high rate for at least 30 min after cessation of milk delivery. In subsequent experiments we found that pups 13-18 days of age engaged in more frequent sucking if receiving milk continuously rather than intermittently, and that this increased rate of sucking persisted for at least 24 hr after cessation of milk delivery. Pups given experience with continuous milk delivery from 14 to 18 days of age also spent significantly more time attached to the nipple at 19 days of age than did pups in control groups. It was concluded that experience with different milk delivery schedules can affect subsequent sucking and nipple attachment behavior.Several investigators have demonstrated that 2-week-old rats traverse runways and mazes more efficiently when reinforcement consists of sucking a nipple which provides milk rather than sucking a nipple which does not (Letz, Burdette, Gregg, Kittrell, & Amsel, 1978;Kenny, Stolhoff, Bruno, & Blass, 1979). We are now finding that the pup's behavior while on the nipple is also affected by milk delivery. Eleven-to thrteenday-old pups engage in more frequent sucking while receiving milk than do pups which receive no milk (Brake, Sager, Sullivan, & Hofer, 1982). Rat pups are also capable of acquiring conditioned preferences for previously aversive olfactory stimuli when those stimuli are paired with milk delivery (Brake, 1981). These findings suggest that suckling rat pups might learn when and how to feed as a function of when and how they have been fed in the past.In this series of experiments we begin to test the hypothesis that specific milk delivery schedules have both immediate and long-term effects on sucking and nippleattachment behavior. In the 1st experiment we explore the short-term effects of milk R,eprint requests should be sent to Stephen C. Brake,
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