The responding of rats was reinforced on one key after a 1-sec auditory stimulus and on a second key after a 5-sec stimulus. With errors punished by a short timeout, all subjects achieved a high level of accuracy. A chain of responses during the stimuli mediated the performance so that when the auditory signals were omitted accuracy decreased only slightly. Response-independent aversive stimulation superimposed upon this procedure both suppressed the total amount of behavior and reduced the accuracy of the discriminative performance, the intensity of the stimulus determining the error rate. The increase in errors under these conditions may have depended in part upon differential suppression of members of the response chain, but such suppression was not necessary, since error rate increased even in its absence. Furthermore, the locus of response disruption within the chain was not consistent from day to day either for any individual animal or across animals.

/pdf/disruption-of-a-temporal-discrimination-under-response-hyh22ui2dn.pdf

Disruption of a temporal discrimination under response-independent shock

In the absence of external stimulus control, rats and pigeons typically show median response runs equivalent to the ratio requirement before switching to a second operandum. Attempts to interrupt the ratio run only temporarily disrupted the number of responses prior to a switch. Neither novel stimuli (pigeon) nor electric shock (rat) produced lasting disruption in the “count” of ratio behavior.

/pdf/response-sequences-in-rats-and-pigeons-2tcerhvtbz.pdf

Frank Crow

Papers

Response sequences in rats and pigeons