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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

An Operant Intra-/Extra-dimensional Set-shift Task for Mice
Published on: January 22, 2016
Responding in configural discrimination problems depends on density of reinforcement in time
Harald Lachnit1, Ira Ludwig, Günter Reinhard
1Faculty of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany. lachnit@staff.uni-marburg.de
Abstract:
Previous research has shown that conditioned responding in differential skin conductance conditioning increased for reinforced stimuli (CSs+) but remained constant for nonreinforced stimuli (CSs-) due to decreasing reinforcement density. The present two experiments (Experiment 1: Negative patterning; Experiment 2: Positive patterning) were designed to disentangle a possible confound of reinforcement density with stimulus frequency. In order to achieve this, we varied the intertrial interval (18 s, 24 s, or 48 s) and held constant the numbers of CSs+ and of CSs- in each of both discrimination problems. With increasing intertrial intervals, we found higher responding both to CSs+ and to CSs- as well as increased response differentiation. We discuss these results with respect to two mechanisms offered by Wagner's SOP model and conclude that the observed effects are due to variations in density of reinforcement in time.
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