The Reinforcing Effect of Changes in Illumination on Lever-Pressing in the Monkey

Stimulus change and complexity in exploratory behavior

“…Second, the present investigation controlled and equated the amount of stimulus-change deprivation, i.e., stimulus preexposure, of each animal and confirmed the earlier fmdings of Moon and Lodahl (1956). That is, physical changes in stimulus intensity, both increases and decreases, can serve as an incentive.…”

“…For some investigators, novelty is a change in illumination (Levin & Forgays, 1959;Moon & Lodahl, 1956;Williams, 1971). For others, it is the introduction of a checkerboard (Fowler, 1965), an elevated maze (Halliday, 1967), a floor insert containing various figurines (Wilson & Taylor, 1969;Taylor, 1970), an opportunity to view another animal (Butler, 1954), or a variety of trinkets (Taylor, 1971).…”

“…Fowler (1967, p. 161) has recognized this logical extension of the stimulus change concept and cites one study in particular as suggesting that increments and decrements have comparable incentive effects. Moon and Lodahl (1956) demonstrated that monkeys would barpress to increase or decrease the illumination in a test apparatus. However, they failed to control the stimulus deprivation variable, and they gave only one short test session.…”

The Effects of Environmental Control on Cognition in Rats (Rattus norvegicus)

“…This became apparent when experimental subjects, who needed only five lever presses to be exposed to every possible light level in the operant cage, pressed the lever more often than five times during the operant phase ( Figure 2). Control over preference has been tested in several studies using rats (McCall, 1965), mice (Kavanau, 1963), and nonhuman primates (Moon & Lodahl, 1956) with similar results. The rate of lever presses that changed ambient illumination, however, did decrease to an average of five per session during the last few days of the operant phase.…”

Control of Timing Behavior by Contingent Photic Stimulation in Cats

“…contingent photic stimulation; conditioned response time; temporal discrimination It was found in rats (Marx et al 1955) and mice (Kish 1955) that a number of responses in conditioned bar pressing behavior increased when a light accompanied each response. Later this finding was confirmed by other investigators (Moon and Lodahl 1956, Kling et al 1956, Forgays and Levin 1959, Berlyne et al 1964, and the experiment in this line has been referred to as 'light-contingent bar pressing experiment. ' McCall (1965) attempted to explain the reinforcing effect of response-contingent photic stimulation in terms of the stimulus-change hypothesis that increments and decrements in illumination would be equally reinforcing the conditioned behavior.…”