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The behavior variability produced
by two different contingencies of reinforcement. Lourenço de Souza Barba and Maria Helena Leite Hunziker University of São Paulo, Brazil Previous studies have demonstrated that behavioral variability is an operant, i.e., it can be modified by reinforcers contingent to it. Rats (n=14) were tested in chambers with two levers (right-R and left-L responses) under three different reinforcement contingencies: a sequence of four lever-press responses was rewarded 1) just if it was different of the last 4 sequences regarding to R and L responses (Lag4 contingency), 2) depending on the amount of the shift responses (5, 30, 80 and 100% of reinforcement for sequences involving zero, one or two shifts from one lever to another - differential shift reinforcement-DSR), or 3) following the yoked procedure for the two previous contingencies (YOKE). The Lag and DSR contingencies produced high behavior variability, but the Lag procedure was more effective for maintaining the higher levels along the sessions. The YOKE contingency produced low level of variability. These results suggested that behavior variability was due to differential reinforcement of different sequences, and that the reinforcement for switch responding was not enough to keep up high levels of variability. Keywords: behavior variability, operant conditioning, animal behavior |
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