PERFORMANCE ON A FIXED-RATIO SCHEDULE WITH CORRELATED AMOUNT OF REWARD

Abstract

Four rats were trained to bar press on FR 9 TO 30 sec. They were reinforced with a large or small amount of water according to whether their final IRT was long or short respectively. Four control rats always received the small amount of reinforcement. The control animals produced the high rates of responding typical of fixed-ratio performance. The experimental animals, with one exception, developed superstitious behavior and maintained slow responding throughout the ratio. However, some features of the results pointed to a persistent influence of the factors which favor short IRTs.