Learning to vary and varying to learn.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral psychology
• Operant conditioning
• Animal behavior

Background:

• Behavioral variability can stem from reinforcement levels or reinforcement contingent on variability.
• Understanding the drivers of behavioral variability is crucial for effective operant conditioning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the influence of reinforcement frequency versus reinforcement contingencies on response variability.
• To investigate the relationship between baseline response variability and the acquisition of complex learned sequences.

Main Methods:

• Experiment 1: Rats were exposed to varying reinforcement frequencies for different levels of response-sequence variability (low, intermediate, high).
• Experiment 2: Assessed the impact of reinforcement for high versus low variability on learning a difficult sequence.

Main Results:

• Reinforcement contingencies were found to exert greater control over response variability than reinforcement frequencies.
• Animals reinforced for high variability successfully learned a difficult sequence, while those reinforced for low variability showed minimal learning.
• Learning increased significantly with higher levels of baseline response variability.

Conclusions:

• Behavioral variability is primarily modulated by reinforcement contingencies.
• Establishing higher baseline variability can facilitate the learning of complex operant responses.
• These findings offer practical implications for conditioning operant responses in various contexts.