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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1985 Nov;44(3):367–376. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1985.44-367

Comparison of drug effects on fixed-ratio performance and chain performance maintained under a second-order fixed-ratio schedule.

P J Winsauer, D M Thompson, J M Moerschbaecher
PMCID: PMC1348199  PMID: 4086974

Abstract

In one component of a multiple schedule, pigeons were required to complete the same four-response chain each session by responding sequentially on three identically lighted keys in the presence of four successively presented colors (chain performance). Food presentation occurred after five completions of the chain (i.e., after 20 correct responses). Errors, such as responding on the center or right key when the left was designated correct, produced a brief timeout but did not reset the chain. In the other component, responding on a single key (lighted white) was maintained by food presentation under a fixed-ratio 20 schedule. In general, phencyclidine and d-amphetamine produced dose-dependent decreases in the overall response rates in both components. With pentobarbital, overall rate in each component generally increased at intermediate doses and decreased at higher doses. All three drugs produced dose-dependent disruptive effects on chain-performance accuracy. Phencyclidine and pentobarbital increased percent errors at doses that had little or no rate-decreasing effects, whereas d-amphetamine generally increased percent errors only at doses that substantially decreased overall rate. At high doses, all three drugs produced greater disruption of chain performance than of fixed-ratio performance, as indicated by a slower return to control responding, although the effects of d-amphetamine were less selective than those of phencyclidine or pentobarbital.

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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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