Motivational and response factors as determinants of the reinforcing value of light onset.

Abstract

To evaluate several facets of the stimulus-change hypothesis of reinforcement, rats were tested in a double-bar Skinner box in which 1 bar was stationary and the other bar movable. Food-deprived and satiated Ssfsubjects] were run in 1 of 3 experimental conditions no stimulus change was produced by either response, light onset occurred when the stationary bar was touched, or it occurred when the movable bar was pressed. The results indicate that response-produced light onset directs exploratory tendencies and that deprivation augments this effect by increasing the organism''s reactivity to environmental stimuli.