Acquisition and extinction effects of partial reinforcement under conditions of thirst motivation

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the generality of partial reinforcement effects across motivational conditions by examining the effects of partial water reinforcement in thirst motivated rats. In Experiment I, patterned responding was observed for subjects that received a single alternation schedule of reinforced (R) and nonreinforced (N) trials, i.e., they learned to run slower on N trials than on R trials. Subjects that received a nonalternating partial reinforcement schedule (PRF) did not exhibit patterned responding. In Experiment II, subjects that received PRF were more resistant to extinction than subjects that received continuous reinforcement during acquisition. The data from both experiments suggests a high degree of similarity in the effects of partial reinforcement regardless of appetitive motivational condition.