A study of misbehavior: token reinforcement in the rat

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Behavioral psychology
• Operant conditioning

Background:

• The Brelands (1961) described "misbehavior" in animals trained with reinforcement.
• This phenomenon involves animals engaging in unintended behaviors during training tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally investigate the "misbehavior" phenomenon reported by Breland and Breland (1961).
• To analyze the underlying mechanisms of these behavioral anomalies in trained rats.

Main Methods:

• Rats were trained to collect ball bearings and deposit them into a hole for food or water reinforcement.
• Four experiments utilized the same rats, manipulating reinforcer type (food vs. water), ball material (standard vs. nylon), and motivational levels (deprivation, prefeeding).
• A final experiment replicated key findings with naive subjects.

Main Results:

• Subjects exhibited "misbehavior," including slow delivery and chewing of ball bearings.
• Delivery times were longer for food than water reinforcers and increased with nylon balls.
• Motivational factors (deprivation, prefeeding) did not significantly affect delivery time, though other performance measures were influenced.

Conclusions:

• "Misbehavior" can be reliably studied in experimental settings.
• Results support an analysis of competing stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer contingencies.
• The absence of similar reports in prior token reinforcer studies remains an open question.