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Biomedical subjects

D PREMACK

Publications and source records attributed to D PREMACK.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1964

REINFORCEMENT OF DRINKING BY RUNNING: EFFECT OF FIXED RATIO AND REINFORCEMENT TIME.

Rats were required to complete varying numbers of licks (FR), ranging from 10 to 300, in order to free an activity wheel for predetermined times (CT) ranging from 2 to 20 sec. The reinforcement of drinking by running was shown both by an increased frequency of licking, and by changes in length of the burst of licking relative to operant-level burst length. In log-log coordinates, instrumental licking tended to be a linear increasing function of FR for the range tested, a linear decreasing function of CT for the range tested. Pause time was implicated in both of the above relations, being a generally increasing function of both FR and CT.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1963

RUNNING AS BOTH A POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCER.

Rats were required to press a bar to activate a motor-driven wheel that forced them to run and subsequently to drink to turn off the wheel. Barpressing and lickilng increased, showing the onset and offset of running to be positively and negatively reinforcing, respectively. The experimental control of the offset of running, in contrast to the traditional control for onset only, served to demonstrate that since organisms stop such behaviors as they start, self-initiated behaviors will act as negative as well as positive reinforcers.

Animals↗
PubMed1963

Prediction of the comparative reinforcement values of running and drinking.

The probability of free drinking and running in rats was controlled by sucrose concentration and force requirements on an activity wheel. Drinking and running were then made contingent on pressing a bar. Barpressing increased monotonically with the associated response probability, and equally for drinking and running. The results support the assumption that different responses of equal probability have equal reinforcement value.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1963

Increased eating in rats deprived of running.

Daily food intake in rats was temporarily reduced by the introduction of an activity wheel and temporarily increased by the subsequent removal of the wheel. When this outcome is coupled with the positive relation between food deprivation and running-and food deprivation is seen as a loss of eating rather than as a physiological state-there is the suggestion that the total behavior output of the organism may be regulated as such. Specifically, when the rat is deprived of a behavior that recurrently comprises a large part of its total daily activity, an increase may occur in some other behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed1963

Some parameters affecting the distributional properties of operant-level running in rats.

Six adult female albino rats were subjected to operations known to increase the frequency of wheel-running. Operations included limited access to wheel, food deprivation, and protracted maintenance on a 24-hr feeding schedule. A distributional analysis of response duration, burst duration, and inter-burst interval showed that the increased frequency in all cases arose mainly from a shortening of the interval between successive bursts. Only short-term food deprivation produced any notable increase in burst length, and even here changes in both speed of the individual responses and in number of responses per burst were slight compared to changes in inter-burst interval.

Animals↗
PubMed1963

Rate differential reinforcement in monkey manipulation.

A set of four manipulanda were presented to four Cebus monkeys, individually, and later in pairs. Step 1 provided an estimate of each S's probability of operating each item, while Step 2 determined whether pairing the items would disturb the ordinal relations among individual response probabilities. Both procedures provided information necessary for testing the assumption that a reinforcer is simply a contingent response whose independent probability of occurrence is greater than that of the associated instrumental response. Step 3 tested this assumption by again presenting pairs of items, but with one locked and its operation made contingent upon operation of the free item of the pair. The four Ss differed markedly in the extent to which the items produced different independent response probabilities, and correspondingly, in the extent to which the contingent pairs subsequently produced reinforcement. Confirmation of the present assumptions came primarily from one S, which differed substantially on the individual items, and showed five cases of reinforcement, all in the predicted direction. Further, reinforcement was shown by an increase in both contingency and extinction sessions. Finally, the response of intermediate probability reinforced the response of least, but not the one of greatest, probability, indicating that a reinforcer cannot be identified absolutely, but only relative to the base response.

Animals↗
PubMed1962

Reversibility of the reinforcement relation.

Parameters were identified for the rat which both made drinking more probable than running and running more probable than drinking. In the same subjects, depending upon which parameters were used, running reinforced drinking and drinking reinforced running. This relationship suggests that a "reward" is simply any response that is independently more probable than another response.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1962

Distributional properties of operant-level locomotion in the rat.

Four rats had continuous access to activity wheels first, then access for 1 hr per day, and, subsequently, continuous access. Limiting S's access to the wheel substantially increased the total frequency of running. A distributional analysis of response duration, burst duration, and interburst interval showed that the increased frequency arose almost entirely from a shortening of the interval between successive bursts. In contrast, speed of the individual response and number of responses per burst changed only negligibly. If S were running, the probability that it would either stop or continue did not differ appreciably for the conditions of continuous or limited access to the wheel. But if S were not running, the probability that it would start running was appreciably greater for limited than for continuous access.

Animals↗
PubMed1961

Licking rates in infant albino rats.

Two groups of neonatal rats raised from birth without the opportunity to drink, and tested at different age levels, exhibited the same general characteristics of licking rate that adult rats do. This suggests that licking in the rat is organized on a genetic-maturational basis

Animals↗