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Updated: Aug 7, 2026
09:43
A Fully Automated Rodent Conditioning Protocol for Sensorimotor Integration and Cognitive Control Experiments
Published on: April 15, 2014
Temporal control in a complex environment: An analysis of schedule-related behavior
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|May 1, 1983
Summary
Collateral activities in rats, when prevented, increased lever pressing under differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules. These behaviors may facilitate operant responding by removing subjects from reinforcement-related stimuli.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Animal behavior
Background:
- Collateral activities are behaviors occurring alongside primary operant responses.
- Their function in operant conditioning, particularly under differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedules, remains debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of collateral activities in rats' lever pressing under DRL schedules.
- To test hypotheses that collateral activities serve timekeeping, discriminative, or inhibitory functions.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments utilized an automated ten-compartment chamber to record collateral activities in rats.
- Rats were reinforced for lever pressing on DRL schedules, with varying manipulations of stimulus support for collateral activities.
Main Results:
- Removing stimulus support for collateral activities increased lever pressing rates.
- Lever pressing rates increased only when stimulus support was fully removed and rats remained near the operant chamber.
- Collateral activities did not show predictive temporal or sequential patterns for operant responding.
Conclusions:
- Collateral activities do not appear to have a timekeeping, discriminative, or direct inhibitory function on operant responding.
- Results suggest collateral activities may facilitate operant responding indirectly by removing the subject from reinforcement-related stimuli.
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