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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1990 May;53(3):395–407. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1990.53-395

Absence of anticipatory contrast in rats trained on multiple schedules.

B A Williams 1
PMCID: PMC1322965  PMID: 2341822

Abstract

Rats were trained on three- and four-component multiple schedules in which two of the components were correlated with identical reinforcement schedules that remained unchanged throughout training. These target components differed in terms of whether their respective following schedules were either higher or lower in value. Unlike corresponding experiments previously reported with pigeons, higher response rates occurred in the target component followed by a higher valued schedule than in the target component followed by the lower valued schedule. Overall contrast effects occurred independently of these sequential effects, but were inconsistent across subjects. The results suggest that the effects of a following schedule of reinforcement are opposite for pigeons and rats, and that one reason previous studies have often failed to show contrast effects with rats is that the effects of the following schedule in rats are in competition with contrast dynamics.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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