On cyclic-interval reinforcement schedules, animals typically show a postreinforcement pause that is a function of the immediately preceding time interval ("temporal tracking"). Animals, however, do not track single-alternation schedules--when two different intervals are presented in strict alternation on successive trials. In this experiment,…

Resistance to change is often studied by measuring response rate in various components of a multiple schedule. Response rate in each component is normalized (that is, divided by its baseline level) and then log-transformed. Differential resistance to change is demonstrated if the normalized, log-transformed response rate in one component decreases…

Choice between sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement was assessed in two experiments. In the first experiment, ten male Wistar rats were exposed to concurrent VI 30 s VI 30 s schedules of wheel-running and sucrose reinforcement. Sucrose concentration varied across concentrations of 2.5, 7.5, and 12.5%. As concentration increased, more behavior…

Four experiments examined the effects of delays to reinforcement on key peck sequences of pigeons maintained under multiple schedules of contingencies that produced variable or repetitive behavior. In Experiments 1, 2, and 4, in the repeat component only the sequence right-right-left-left earned food, and in the vary component four-response…

Given a commodity available at different prices, a unit-price account of choice predicts preference for the cheaper alternative. This experiment determined if rhesus monkeys preferred remifentanil (an ultra-short-acting [mu]-opioid agonist) delivered at a lower unit price over a higher-priced remifentanil alternative (Phases 1 and 3). Choice…

Pigeons responded on concurrent-chains schedules with equal variable-interval schedules as initial links. One terminal link delivered a single reinforcer after a fixed delay, and the other terminal link delivered either three or five reinforcers, each preceded by a fixed delay. Some conditions included a postreinforcer delay after the single…

We trained four pigeons to discriminate a Michotte launching animation from three other animations using a go/no-go task. The pigeons received food for pecking at one of the animations, but not for pecking at the others. The four animations featured two types of interactions among objects: causal (direct launching) and noncausal (delayed, distal,…

Three pigeons chose between random-interval (RI) and tandem, continuous-reinforcement, fixed-interval (crf-FI) reinforcement schedules by pecking either of two keys. As long as a pigeon pecked on the RI key, both keys remained available. If a pigeon pecked on the crf-FI key, then the RI key became unavailable and the crf-FI timer began to time…

Three pigeons discriminated between two sample stimuli (intensities of red light). The difficulty of the discrimination was varied over four levels. At each level, the relative reinforcer magnitude for the two correct responses was varied across conditions, and the reinforcer rates were equal. Within levels, discriminability between the sample…

In autoshaping experiments, we quantified the acquisition of anticipatory head poking in individual mice, using an algorithm that finds changes in the slope of a cumulative record. In most mice, upward changes in the amount of anticipatory poking per trial were abrupt, and tended to occur at session boundaries, suggesting that the session is as…

This article describes an interdisciplinary, activity-based lesson plan implemented in a third/fourth-grade classroom. During these activities, students use musical concepts to think about, illustrate, and discuss animal behavior, and they use scientific concepts to motivate musical composition and performance. The lesson ends with small group…

The orbitofrontal cortex (OBFc) has been suggested to code the motivational value of environmental stimuli and to use this information for the flexible guidance of goal-directed behavior. To examine whether information regarding reward prediction is quantitatively represented in the rat OBFc, neural activity was recorded during an olfactory…

Reports on research related to the theory that the nervous systems, and hence the behavior, of animals may be permanently modified during initial periods of early life in response to environmental stimuli. (GS)

Presents models that ascribe social behavior, such as altruism and parental sacrifices for the young, to a kind of genetic imperative wherein individuals maximize their genetic contribution to the next generation. (GS)

Cherokee Indian children were named after those animals they had most frequently killed until a chief dreamed that children's names should be derived from the first animal seen at dawn. (JC)