Four Reinforcements of the Food-Producing Response Establishes Observing

Abstract

In a previous study we showed that extensive preliminary training is not necessary to establish observing behavior in rats. In that study, reinforcing the food-producing response as few as 13 or as many as 1000 times before exposure to the observing procedure was equally effective to establish observing. In the present study we asked if observing behavior would develop in three rats each exposed to the prior reinforcement of the food-producing response either 24, 8, 4 or 2 times on a Random Interval (RI) 4 s schedule. The observing procedure consisted of a two-lever concurrent schedule. Left-lever responses produced food-pellets on a mixed RI 8 s extinction schedule, each component lasting 32 and 64 s, respectively. Each right-lever press produced a 6 s signal, different for each component of the mixed schedule. The time necessary to establish observing was a decreasing monotonic function of the number of times the food-producing response was previously reinforced. Data shows that 4 reinforcements of the food-producing response suffice to establish observing. These results extend the findings from previous studies on the acquisition of new responses to the case of the complex response pattern produced by an observing procedure.