Schedule-induced defecation.

Abstract

Excessive defecation, typically considered to be a concomitant of stress, was experimentally induced or eliminated under specific schedules of positive reinforcement of lever pressing by rats. The schedules were, by and large, those under which polydipsia is typically induced. In the first of three experiments, rats under fixed-interval 32-second schedules and variable interval 32-second schedules for food and water reinforcers defecated profusely, but not under fixed-interval one-second schedules or other small interval schedules. Somewhat higher rates of defecation were observed on variable interval 32-second schedules than on fixed-interval 32-second schedules. In a second experiment, fixed-ratio schedules were used, some of which resulted in responding such that reinforcement densities were similar to those on the interval schedules that induced defecation. Defecation was not systematically induced by these ratio schedules. In a third experiment, fixed-time schedules of food presentations were utilized. High rates of defecation were induced comparable to those induced by interval schedules of the same time parameter. No other behavior commonly termed "emotional" was observed in any of these experiments.