Transfer of conditioned suppression and conditioned acceleration from instrumental to consummatory baselines

Abstract

Following training on a variable-interval food reinforcement schedule, rats were exposed to Pavlovian procedures which produced reliable conditioned suppression and conditioned acceleration of the leverpressing (instrumental) baseline. When free food was simultaneously made available in the test cage, all subjects spent the majority of each session "freeloading," that is, eating food from a dish rather than leverpressing for it. When superimposed upon the freeloading baseline, the conditioned suppression and conditioned acceleration procedures affected the rate of pellet consumption identically in magnitude and direction to their previous effects on leverpressing. These results suggest a motivational mechanism for conditioned suppression and acceleration, rather than one which depends upon spurious punishment of specific response sequences.

Numerically restricted food intake in the rat in a free-feeding situation

“…Most demonstrations in the numerical competence literature with animals involve modification of arbitrary instrumental responses rather than consummatory acts (see, e.g., Boysen & Berntson, 1989;Davis, 1984;Davis & Albert, 1986;Femandes & Church, 1982). In drawing this distinction, we concede that the absolute classification of instrumental as opposed to consummatory behavior is not without problems, both within appetitive conditioning (e.g., Jenkins & Moore, 1973) and in aversive control (e.g., Davis & Shattuck, 1980). In the present situation, for example, the head movements used to proeure food may have involved an instrumental component.…”

The description and analysis of conditioned suppression: A critique of the conventional suppression ratio

“…These dramatic departures from linearity are illustrated in Figure 3. It should be noted that ratio values above O.S, indicating accelerated responding during the CS, are by no means inprobable (Davis et al, 1975(Davis et al, , 1976Davis & Shattuck, 1980;Hammond, 1966;Hurwitz & Roberts, 1977).…”

Numerical Competence in Ferrets

“…Their probability may have been raised by our use of food deprivation (albeit low level by conventional standards), as well as the presence of freely available food. It has been argued (e.g., Davis & Shattuck, 1980; Decosta & Ayers, 1971) that consummatory behavior may be harder to suppress than the arbitrary instrumental acts typically employed in numerical testing (e.g., Boysen & Bemtson, 1989;Davis, 1984;Femandes & Church, 1982).…”