Abstract
The results of a three-phase autoshaping experiment with rats is reported. In Phase 1, subjects were exposed either to a paired or an unpaired arrangement of a visual CS and food. These treatments produced no differential contact with the visual stimulus, but paired rats were found to display greater approach to the site of food delivery than were unpaired subjects during the CS. In Phase 2, all subjects were given identical discrete-trials (FR 6) training with a different visual stimulus as an SD. In the final test stage, a choice procedure was employed, involving the simultaneous presentation of both CS and SD. Percent responding to the CS was greater for paired than for unpaired rats in this phase. These findings were interpreted as support for the view that the form of terminal contact with a signal for food is dependent upon the nature of the learned or innate behaviors that compose the organism’s normal food-getting sequence.
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The authors wish to express their gratitude to Ralph Gilpatrick and J. V. Lupo for assistance in various phases of this research.
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Crowell, C.R., Bernhardt, T.P. & Moskal, P. On the manifestation of stimulus-directed behavior in the rat. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 17, 41–44 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333661
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333661