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Updated: Apr 20, 2026

Operant Procedures for Assessing Behavioral Flexibility in Rats
Published on: February 15, 2015
Acquisition of operant behavior in rats with delayed reinforcement: A retractable-lever procedure
Andrew A McNamara1, Lyndsey E Johnson1, Christopher Tate1
1Department of Psychology, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, United States.
Abstract:
Experimentally naïve rats acquired lever pressing with delayed reinforcement when the immediate programmed consequence for lever pressing was the simultaneous retraction of two identical levers. Presses on one lever also produced access to sweetened condensed milk after a delay of 10s following retraction. Presses on the second lever resulted in retraction only. Lever retraction prevented the possibility of adventitious reinforcement of contacting the operanda during the reinforcement delays. Several measures indicated that the delayed reinforcers strengthened behavior. The majority of responses for all rats were on the lever that initiated reinforcer delivery. Responding for seven out of eight rats decreased during a subsequent extinction phase in which retraction was the only consequence arranged for lever pressing. Responding recovered rapidly when food reinforcement was available again. Furthermore, when contingencies on the two levers were switched, rats allocated their behavior accordingly, showing control by the delayed reinforcers.
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