Probability Relations within Response Sequences under Ratio Reinforcement.
01 Apr 1958-Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior)-Vol. 1, Iss: 2, pp 109-121
About: This article is published in Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.The article was published on 1958-04-01 and is currently open access. It has received 264 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Reinforcement.
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TL;DR: Female Wistar rats were trained on a fixed-consecutive-number schedule in which a response on a food lever was followed by the presentation of reinforcement when at least three, but not more than seven responses had been completed on a work lever, resulting in a decrease in response accuracy induced by both drugs.
Abstract: Male and female Wistar rats were trained on a fixed-consecutive-number schedule in which a response on a food lever was followed by the presentation of reinforcement when at least three, but not more than seven responses had been completed on a work lever. Subjects were treated with different doses of the centrally acting cholinergic antagonist scopolamine hydrobromide or the more peripherally active cholinergic antagonist scopolamine methylbromide (0.08, 0.16 or 0.32 mg/ml/kg) once behavior had stabilized. Scopolamine hydrobromide and scopolamine methylbromide dose-dependently decreased response rates in males and females. Scopolamine methylbromide decreased response rates more than equivalent doses of scopolamine hydrobromide and the rate-suppressant effects of both drugs were more marked in males than in females. Scopolamine hydrobromide dose-dependently decreased response accuracy, but differences between males and females were not observed. Response accuracy also decreased after scopolamine methylbromide, but did not vary as a function of the dose of the drug. The decrease in response accuracy induced by both drugs was attributable to an increase in the percentage of trials with a premature switch from the work lever to the food lever. Both scopolamine hydrobromide and scopolamine methylbromide dose-dependently increased the number of premature switches. Differences between males and females were not observed. Administration of scopolamine hydrobromide and scopolamine methylbromide also decreased the number of obtained reinforcers in a dose-dependent manner. Females obtained significantly fewer reinforcers than males, while scopolamine methylbromide affected the number of obtained reinforcers to a larger extent than scopolamine hydrobromide.
14 citations
TL;DR: The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform arithmetic operations on discrete quantities (numerosities) has been documented in a variety of species of different taxonomic groups, both vertebrates and invertebrates as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform arithmetic operations on discrete quantities (numerosities) has been documented in a variety of species of different taxonomic groups, both vertebrates and invertebrates. We do not know, however, to what extent similarity in behavioral data corresponds to basic similarity in underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we review evidence for magnitude representation, both discrete (countable) and continuous, following the sensory input path from primary sensory systems to associative pallial territories in the vertebrate brains. We also speculate on possible underlying mechanisms in invertebrate brains and on the role played by modeling with artificial neural networks. This may provide a general overview on the nervous system involvement in approximating quantity in different animal species, and a general theoretical framework to future comparative studies on the neurobiology of number cognition.
13 citations
TL;DR: Tests for control by time, number of responses, and amount of food consumed indicated that the pigeons were using primarily the number of reinforcements obtained in each sequence as a cue for nonreinforcement.
Abstract: Numerical competence has been studied in animals under a variety of conditions, but only a few experiments have reported animals’ ability to detect absolute number Capaldi and Miller (1988) tested rats’ ability to detect absolute number by using biologically important events—the number of reinforced runs followed by a nonreinforced run—and found that the rats ran significantly slower on the nonreinforced run In the present experiments, we used a similar procedure Pigeons were given a sequence of trials in which responding on the first three trials ended in reinforcement but responding on the fourth trial did not (RRRN) When the response requirement on each trial was a single peck (Experiment 1), we found no significant increase in latency to peck on the fourth trial When the response requirement was increased to 10 pecks (Experiment 2), however, the time to complete the peck requirement was significantly longer on the nonreinforced trial than on the reinforced trials Tests for control by time, number of responses, and amount of food consumed indicated that the pigeons were using primarily the number of reinforcements obtained in each sequence as a cue for nonreinforcement This procedure represents a sensitive and efficient method for studying numerical competence in animals
13 citations
TL;DR: The results showed for the first time that mice could adaptively modulate their count-based decisions based on the experienced probabilistic contingencies in directions predicted by optimality.
Abstract: Previous studies showed that both human and non-human animals can discriminate between different quantities (i.e., time intervals, numerosities) with a limited level of precision due to their endogenous/representational uncertainty. In addition, other studies have shown that subjects can modulate their temporal categorization responses adaptively by incorporating information gathered regarding probabilistic contingencies into their time-based decisions. Despite the psychophysical similarities between the interval timing and nonverbal counting functions, the sensitivity of count-based decisions to probabilistic information remains an unanswered question. In the current study, we investigated whether exogenous probabilistic information can be integrated into numerosity-based judgments by mice. In the task employed in this study, reward was presented either after few (i.e., 10) or many (i.e., 20) lever presses, the last of which had to be emitted on the lever associated with the corresponding trial type. In order to investigate the effect of probabilistic information on performance in this task, we manipulated the relative frequency of different trial types across different experimental conditions. We evaluated the behavioral performance of the animals under models that differed in terms of their assumptions regarding the cost of responding (e.g., logarithmically increasing vs. no response cost). Our results showed for the first time that mice could adaptively modulate their count-based decisions based on the experienced probabilistic contingencies in directions predicted by optimality.
13 citations
Cites background from "Probability Relations within Respon..."
...For instance, Mechner (1958) has shown that rats can successfully keep track of different numerosities (i.e., 4, 8, 12, and 16) and organize their anticipatory responses accordingly (for similar results in mice, see Çavdaroğlu and Balcı 2015)....
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...Both human and non-human animals can represent numerosities through a nonverbal counting mechanism (Dehaene 1997; Gallistel and Gelman 1992, 2000; Gelman and Cordes 2001; Mechner 1958)....
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...…deviation) with increasing target numerosities and to show scalar variability as indicated by the constancy of the CVs for different target numerosities (Brannon and Roitman 2003; Cordes et al. 2001, 2007a, b; Çavdaroğlu and Balcı 2015; Mechner 1958; Platt and Johnson 1971; Whalen et al. 1999)....
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...increasing target numerosities and to show scalar variability as indicated by the constancy of the CVs for different target numerosities (Brannon and Roitman 2003; Cordes et al. 2001, 2007a, b; Çavdaroğlu and Balcı 2015; Mechner 1958; Platt and Johnson 1971; Whalen et al. 1999)....
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TL;DR: Findings suggest divided stimulus control between time and numbers depends both on recent experience with relative reinforcer rates and on factors relating to the animal’s longer term history, such as training.
Abstract: Behavior may come under the control of time or number when such cues predict food availability, but time tends to exert stronger control than does number. We asked how the control of behavior is divided between time and number in a procedure where the likely location of a reinforcer reversed systematically at a particular point in a trial. In Phase 1, we asked whether pigeons would choose to time or count when both time and number of responses could be used to discriminate the occurrence of the reversal. Pigeons preferred to time, even when numbers of events were more reliable predictors of reinforcer availability. In the Phase 2, we asked whether control could be shifted from time to number when number was highly discriminable and time was a highly unreliable predictor of the reversal. In this phase, pigeons continued to favor time over number. These findings suggest divided stimulus control between time and numbers depends both on recent experience with relative reinforcer rates and on factors relating to the animal's longer term history, such as training. This research adds to a growing body of work demonstrating strong control by elapsed time when elapsed time is not the most reliable predictor of reinforcer availability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
12 citations
Cites background from "Probability Relations within Respon..."
...Given that both Mechner (1958) and Machado and Rodrigues (2007) found quite precise control using rats when four eight responses were required before a response on another key would provide food, the present failure of control by counting was surprising....
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References
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TL;DR: I am indebted to Professor Lighthill for some further illuminating remarks regarding this point and his comments on Heisenberg's Theory of Isotropic Turbulence are highly illuminating.
Abstract: 1 G. K. Batchelor, The Theory of Homogeneous Turbulence (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1954). 2 G. K. Batchelor and A. A. Townsend, \"Decay of Turbulence in the Final Period of Decay,\" Proc. Roy. Soc. London, A, 194, 527-543, 1948. 3 W. Heisenberg, \"Zur statistischen Theorie der Turbulenz,\" Z. Physik, 124, 628-657, 1948. 4W. H. Reid, \"Two Remarks on Heisenberg's Theory of Isotropic Turbulence,\" Quart. Appl. Math. 14, 201-205, 1956. 6 Cf. M. J. Lighthill, Nature, 173, 746, 1954. I am indebted to Professor Lighthill for some further illuminating remarks regarding this point.
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