Acquisition of Responses with Different Effort Requirements After Exposure to Noncontingent Stimuli

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Carlos Henrique Santos da Silva
Nilza Micheletto

Abstract

 


This experiment investigated whether noncontingent appetitive stimuli exposure has effects in a subsequent response acquisition with different efforts. On the first phase, rats were exposed to contingent events to nose poke response, noncontingent events, or no exposition. On the second phase, the bar press response of the animals was continuously reinforced or submitted to a FR3 schedule. The time and number of reinforcers to response acquisition varied among subjects, and none relation was identified between first phase exposition with response acquisition of different efforts on phase 2. The longest time in response acquisition identified in some subjects occurred due to competitive responses on the first phase followed by appetitive stimuli. Possibilities for future studies and possible implications for the applied context are discussed.

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Section
Human Development

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