The integration of habits maintained by food and water reinforcement through stimulus compounding

In Experiment 1, a light and a tone were correlated independently with water reinforcement of bar pressing by rats. With different naive subjects in Experiment 2, one of these stimuli was correlated with food and the other with water reinforcement (counterbalanced). In both experiments the absence of tone and light signaled extinction. Tests of stimulus-reinforcer independence in Experiment 2 indicated that tone and light controlled behavior whose rate was specifically affected by deprivation state. In the stimulus-compounding tests of both experiments, response rates were higher to tone-plus-light than to tone or light presented alone (additive summation). This is the first report of additive summation produced through compounding stimuli paired with different reinforcers. The results are discussed in the context of the effects of incentive motivation on operant performance.