Deprivation Level, Competing Responses, and the Pre

Abstract

Rats were given 60 acquisition and 32 extinction trials in a straight runway. A 3 × 2 factorial design was employed, combining 3 levels of food deprivation with continuous and partial reinforcement schedules. The principal results were: (a) The magnitude of the partial reinforcement effect during extinction increased with increased food deprivation. (b) The major effects of deprivation during extinction were upon the performance of Ss on partial reinforcement; there was relatively little effect on the performance of continuous reinforcement Ss. (c) The frequency of competing responses differed among the experimental groups during both acquisition and extinction and generally was inversely related to running speed.