Drive Shifting Prior to Extinction of Bar Pressing Reinforced by Different Sucrose Incentives

Abstract

Srlmmary.-Rats were trained to bar press for 1 of 2 different sucrose reinforcements under a particular deprivation condition, then were extinguished under the same or a different condition. Independent groups of Ss were trained thirsty and extinguished thirsty or satiated, were trained hungry and extinguished hungry or thirsty, were trained thirsty and extinguished hungry or thirsty. Differential reintorcement effects were found only for those Ss trained under food deprivation; Ss trained while water deprived showed no reinforcement differences in training or extinction. There did appear to be drive stimulus generalization effects.

The interactive effects of type of deprivation and sucrose concentration on the acquisition and extinction performance in the rat.

“…When Ss were non-deprived or deprived of water, there were no pronounced differences in extinction performance. This supports Beck's (1967) previous report that water deprived rats emit the same number of bar-presses in extinction for different sucrose concentrations. The present results extend this original observation and demonstrate that equal performance curves can be obtained for thirsty rats over a wide range of values starting with the lowest possible sucrose concentration (0% or water) and logarithmically progressing to that level which approaches the maximum amount of solute that can be dissolved in water (64%) without resorting to techniques which produce a super-saturated solution.…”