TEMPORAL ALTERNATION IN THE WHITE RAT

Four white rats were reinforced after 15 then 45 then 15 then 135 (or 5) responses to a bar under a single exteroceptive stimulus condition. Three came to make long pauses before the longest ratio in the schedule but not before any of the others. Four other rats were reinforced after alternate response chains each made on two bars. The first chain was FR5FR5 for all subjects, the second FR5FR40 for two, and FR40FR5 and FR20FR5 for one subject each. Subjects reinforced on schedule mix (chain FR5FR5 chain FR5FR40) both paused longer after the first than after the second chain relatively early in training. Later, the subject reinforced on mix (chain FR5FR5 chain FR40FR5) also paused longer after the first chain, but pauses of the fourth subject were equally short after both chains. When the ratios in the second chain were reversed the two subjects now reinforced on mix (chain FR5FR5 chain FR40FR5) paused much longer after the first chain, but the other two paused only slightly longer after the first than after the second chain.