The function of a stimulus as a reinforcer depends on concurrent stimulation

Abstract

Some experiments on Schedule-Induced Drinking (SID) in rats are described in the first part of this paper. The results from these experiments can be classified according to two different approaches. Data from the first approach show that the water-producing response can be controlled by different schedules of intermittent-water reinforcement, suggesting that water production is the genuine reinforcement in SID experiments. Data from the second approach show that water acquires a reinforcing function during SID sessions because under food deprivation, water intake tracks closely food intake. The results from these experiments suggest that instead of viewing. SID as a third class of behavior, it reduces to operant conditioning. The second part of the paper argues that the transitory acquisition of a reinforcing function by stimulus is considerably general to other conditioning situations, species and stimuli. Evidence from the literatures on motivation, behavioral economics, physiology and sensory reinforcement is presented to support the idea that the activity of organisms changes continuously as the stimuli in the environment also change their function continuously.