Acquisition of a nose-poke response in rats as an operant

Schindler, Charles W.; Thorndike, Eric B.; Goldberg, Steven R.

doi:10.3758/bf03334932

Cited by 27 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…Seven operant chambers (30×24×29 cm; Coulbourn Instruments), enclosed individually in sound attenuation chests, have been described in detail elsewhere (Schindler et al 1993). Unlike previous stimulus-compounding studies with this type of schedule, a nosepoke response was used rather than a lever-press response.…”

Section: Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivational effects of compounding discriminative stimuli associated with food and cocaine

1998

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In previous experiments, the compounding of two discriminative stimuli associated with the same reinforcer increased rats' responding approximately three-fold, regardless of whether the reinforcer was food, water, cocaine, or shock-avoidance. Compounding a discriminative stimulus associated with food with one associated with water increased responding two-fold. In the present experiment, compounding a discriminative stimulus associated with food with one associated with cocaine increased responding two-fold. These results support the hypothesis that 1) the effects of stimuli associated with reinforcers from the same incentive class (appetitive or aversive) are mutually enhancing, and 2) the combined effects of stimuli associated with two different reinforcers from within the same class are not as strong as those of two stimuli associated with the same reinforcer. These results also suggest that discriminative stimuli associated with non-drug reinforcers may increase the motivation to self-administer cocaine when encountered in combination with drug-related stimuli.

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Section: Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivational effects of compounding discriminative stimuli associated with food and cocaine

1998

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“…Operant chambers (30 cm by 24 cm by 29 cm, Coulbourn Instruments), enclosed individually in sound-attenuation chests, have been described in detail elsewhere (Schindler, Thorndike, & Goldberg, 1993). Each chamber had a metal grid floor and two nosepoke holes (activated by the breaking of a photobeam 0.5 cm inside the hole), one on each side of the right wall.…”

Section: Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Compounding Drug‐related Stimuli: Escalation of Heroin Self‐administration

Panlilio

Weiss

Schindler

2000

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Previous experiments have demonstrated that presenting independently established discriminative stimuli in compound can substantially increase operant responding maintained by food reinforcement or shock avoidance. Recently, this phenomenon was also shown to occur with cocaine self-administration. The present study further assessed the generality of these stimulus-compounding effects by systematically replicating them with heroin self-administration. Rats' nose-poke responses produced intravenous heroin (0.025 mg/kg per infusion) on a variable-ratio schedule when either a tone or a light was present. In the absence of these stimuli, responding was not reinforced. Once discriminative control by the tone and light had been established, the stimuli were presented in compound under extinction (with heroin discontinued) or maintenance conditions (with heroin available during test-stimulus presentations). In extinction, the tone-light compound increased responding approximately threefold compared to tone or light alone. Under maintenance conditions, compounding increased heroin intake approximately twofold. These effects closely matched those obtained earlier with cocaine. This consistency across pharmacological classes and across drug and nondrug reinforcers further confirms that (a) self-administered drugs support conditioning and learning in a manner similar to that supported by other reinforcers; and (b) multiple drug-related cues interact in lawful and predictable ways to affect drug seeking and consumption.

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“…In addition to the more usual fixed costs we also study variable costs that emulate uncertainty about unit price and progressive costs that emulate depletion of a resource or patch. A second objective is to compare lever press and nose poke responses; this comparison has not to our knowledge been reported in mice, but in rats a nose poke may support faster task acquisition [18]. In Experiment 2, we examine the effects on demand and meal parameters of a wide range of concurrent approach costs and unit prices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meal patterns of mice under systematically varying approach and unit costs for food in a closed economy

Atalayer

Rowland

2009

Physiology & Behavior

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Several field and experimental studies have investigated the behavioral economics of food intake. In the laboratory, operant behavior has been used to emulate cost and to generate demand functions that express the relationship between the price of food and amount consumed. There have been few such studies of motivated food seeking and intake in mice, and none has reported demand functions. Using albino (CD1) male mice, the present study compares food intake and meal patterns across a series of ratio cost schedules. The first experiment examined unit price. A closed economy was used in which the mice were in the test chambers for 23 h/day and earned all of their food via either a nose poke or lever press response under fixed (FUP5, FUP10, FUP25, FUP50), variable (VUP10, VUP20, VUP50), and progressive (PUP1.25, PUP1.5, PUP1.75) unit prices. Mice were run for 4 days at each cost. There were no consistent differences between the first and last day indicating that behavioral adjustments to schedule changes occurred rapidly. When averaged across all price schedules, mice in the nose poke group consumed more food than their lever press counterparts but the overall shapes of the demand curves did not differ between the two operant responses, with intake decreasing as price increased. The number of meals taken per day differed between two meal-defining criteria that we applied, and there were some differences between the types of unit price schedule. In the second experiment, approach cost in the form of nose poke responses were required to activate a response device (lever) on which a fixed unit price for food was in force. These approach and unit costs were varied systematically. Meal number decreased, and meal size increased, with increasing approach cost even though nose pokes accounted for only a small fraction of the total response activity. Thus, meal patterns in mice are sensitive to approach cost while total amount consumed is more sensitive to unit price. These data are discussed in terms of the concept of foraging cost as either a unitary or a multidimensional variable.

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Acquisition of a nose-poke response in rats as an operant

Cited by 27 publications

References 18 publications

Motivational effects of compounding discriminative stimuli associated with food and cocaine

Motivational effects of compounding discriminative stimuli associated with food and cocaine

Effects of Compounding Drug‐related Stimuli: Escalation of Heroin Self‐administration

Meal patterns of mice under systematically varying approach and unit costs for food in a closed economy

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