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Instinctive Drift01:05

Instinctive Drift

Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...
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In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective. 
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 27, 2026

Operant Protocols for Assessing the Cost-benefit Analysis During Reinforced Decision Making by Rodents
07:05

Operant Protocols for Assessing the Cost-benefit Analysis During Reinforced Decision Making by Rodents

Published on: September 10, 2018

Suboptimal choice in nonhuman animals: rats commit the sunk cost error.

Paula Magalhães1, K Geoffrey White, Tessa Stewart

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. pmagalhaes@psy.otago.ac.nz

Learning & Behavior
|November 18, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Rats exhibit sunk cost error, persisting with investments even when costly. Even when escaping was optimal, rats chose to persist, demonstrating this irrational behavior in animal models.

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Last Updated: May 27, 2026

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Published on: August 2, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Economics
  • Animal Cognition

Background:

  • The sunk cost error describes persisting with an endeavor due to prior investment, a behavior debated in nonhuman animals.
  • Investigating this error in rats addresses whether such irrational economic decision-making is unique to humans.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if rats commit the sunk cost error.
  • To identify factors influencing rats' decisions to persist or escape costly situations.

Main Methods:

  • Rats were trained on fixed-ratio (FR) schedules with an escape option on a separate lever.
  • Variables manipulated included FR size, number of trials, and escape effort.
  • The primary dependent measure was the decision to persist with the FR or to escape.

Main Results:

  • The size of the larger fixed-ratio (FR) schedule was the primary determinant of persisting versus escaping.
  • Rats escaping the larger FR did so at a suboptimal point, indicating sunk cost error.
  • Experimental manipulations did not significantly alter this tendency.

Conclusions:

  • Rats demonstrate the sunk cost error, persisting with costly investments.
  • The size of the initial investment (larger FR) influences the decision to abandon or persist.
  • These findings suggest that sunk cost effects may not be exclusive to human decision-making.