Abstract
An increase from.01% to 1% in the concentration of saccharine solution in an operant conditioning box with rats produced positive contrast, while an increment from.05% to 1% failed to result in positive contrast effects. These findings are in agreement with the few studies that have examined the effects of magnitude of reinforcement change on the magnitude of incentive contrast with human and infrahuman organisms. It would appear that amount of reward increment is a variable that controls the occurrence of positive incentive contrast effects in rats.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Ashida, S., & Birch, D. The effects of incentive shift as a function of training. Psychonomic Science, 1964, 1, 201–202.
Collier, G., Knarr, F. A., & Marx, M. H. Some relations between the intensive properties of the consummatory response and reinforcement. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1961, 62, 484–495.
Crespi, L. P. Quantitative variations of incentive and performance in the white rat. American Journal of Psychology, 1942, 55, 467–517.
Di Lollo, V. D., & Beez, V. Negative contrast effect as a function of magnitude of reward decrement. Psychonomic Science, 1966, 5, 99–100.
Dunham, P. J., & Kilps, B. Shifts in magnitude of reinforcement: Confounded factors or contrast effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1969, 79, 373–374.
Gonzalez, R. C., Gleitman, H., & Bitterman, M. E. Some observations on the depression effect. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1962, 55, 578–581.
Hulse, S. H. Partial reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, and reinforcement shift effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1962, 64, 451–459.
Metzger, R., Cotton, J. W., & Lewis, D. J. Effects of reinforcement magnitude and of order of presentation of different magnitudes on runway behavior. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1957, 50, 184–188.
Panskepp, J., & Trowill, J. A. Positive and negative contrast effects with hypothalamic reward. Physiology and Behavior, 1969, 4, 173–175.
Shanab, M. E., & Ferrell, H. J. Positive contrast obtained in the Lashley maze under different drive conditions. Psychonomic Science, 1970, 20, 31–32.
Shanab, M. E., Sanders, R., & Premack, D. Positive contrast in the runway obtained with delay of reward. Science, 1969, 164, 724–725.
Spence, K. W. Behavior theory and conditioning. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956.
Weinstein, L. Negative incentive contrast with saccharine versus sucrose and partial reinforcement. Psychonomic Science, 1970, 21, 276–278. (a)
Weinstein, L. Negative incentive contrast with sucrose. Psychonomic Science, 1970, 19, 13–14. (b)
Weinstein, L. Magnitude of incentive contrast as a function of amount of verbal reward change. Psychonomic Science, 1970, 21, 65–66. (c)
Weinstein, L., & Colucci, V. M. Increase in incentive amount with verbal reinforcement. Psychonomic Science, 1970, 21, 83–84. (a)
Weinstein, L., & Colucci, V. M. Negative incentive contrast effects with verbal reinforcement. Psychonomic Science, 1970, 18, 318. (b)
Zeaman, D. Response latency as a function of the amount of reinforcement. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1949, 39, 466–483.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weinstein, L. Effects of magnitude of reward increment on positive incentive contrast effects in the rat. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 9, 233–235 (1977). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336985
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336985