Age of first appearance of simultaneous and successive negative contrast in infant rats.

Abstract

Simultaneous (SimNC) and successive negative contrast (SNC), two paradoxical effects that are related to shifts in reward magnitude, were studied in rats from 11 to 17 days of age. Experiments 1 and 2 looked at the emergence of SimNC at 11, 14, and 17 days. At all of these ages, rats were able to discriminate between the large (milk suckling) and small (dry suckling) reward odor cues as measured by attachment latencies, but only the 14- and 17-day-olds showed SimNC. At none of the three ages was a discrimination formed to the differential odor cues in the alley in terms of runway speeds. Experiment 3 was designed as a further test of the absence of SimNC at 11 days. In this experiment, the pups were placed directly on the dam's ventrum to facilitate attachment. As in the earlier experiment, the 11-day-old pups discriminated between the odors signaling the two reward conditions but did not show the SimNC effect. In Experiment 4, SNC was measured in pups 14 and 17 days of age. SNC was shown at 17 days but not at 14 days in the attachment latency measure and at neither age in the run measure. These four experiments extend our earlier findings that the paradoxical effects that emerge out of intermittent schedules of reward magnitude occur earlier than those associated with single abrupt shifts in reward magnitude.