Effect of signaled reinforcement on the formation of behavioral units.

Abstract

Experiments examined the influence of a brief reinforcement signal on the acquisition of a response sequence and investigated whether such sequences serve as behavioral nits. In Experiment 1, hungry rats emitted 2 responses on each of 2 levers to earn food reward. There was no constraint on the sequence in which the 2 responses per lever could be emitted, but rats came to emit 1 of the permitted 4-response sequences to a greater degree than the others. Signaled reinforcement promoted emission of the dominant response sequence. In Experiments 2 and 3, rats with signaled reinforcement displayed facilitated acquisition of the required response sequence, and emission of the sequence persisted after the schedule, reinforcing the required sequence, which was shifted to a variable interval 45-s schedule

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