EFFECT OF RESPONSE-INDEPENDENT REINFORCERS DURING EXTINCTION

In 4 experiments with a total of 127 male Sprague-Dawley rats, bar pressing was extinguished. Food presentation was continued but made independent of the bar pressing. Such an extinction procedure retarded extinction compared with the normal no-food procedure. This retardation was not attributable to superstitious bar pressing maintained by food delivery: It occurred even though bar pressing postponed the food delivery, and the introduction of free food into extinction enhanced responding independently of the ongoing response rate. However, the enhancement in responding produced by free food did depend upon prior bar-press training, indicating a learned discriminative stimulus effect of food delivery. It is suggested that delivery of free food during extinction preserves more aspects of the reinforcing situation than the normal extinction procedure while simultaneously eliminating the response-reinforcer contingency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.