Influence of partial reinforcement of running on the extinction of continuously reinforced barpressing in rats

Transfer of persistence across reinforced behaviors

“…Lewis (cited in Spear & Pavlik, 1966) and Wenrich, Eckman, Moore, and Houston (1967) reported that requiring rats to perform several runway traversals per food pellet produced greater subsequent performance in extinction of a second behavior, continuously reinforced barpressing, than reward for each traversal. Rashotte (1971), however, failed to replicate the Wenrich et al results. McCuller, Wong, and Amsel (1976) found that speed during extinction of continuously rewarded runway traversal was an increasing function of the previously required number of barpresses per food pellet.…”

Transfer of persistence from fixed-ratio barpress training to runway extinction

“…Lewis (unpublished experiment cited in Spear & Pavlik, 1966) and Wenrich,Eckman,Moore,and Houston (I967) found increased resistance to extinction of continuously rewarded barpressing after partially rewarded runway training. However, Rashotte (1971), in two experiments, failed to confirm these earlier findings. These conflicting results may be related to differences in the shaping procedures used and particularly to the ease with which shaping was accomplished.…”