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Motivating operations as contexts for operant discrimination training and testing.

Melanie Stites1, Matthew Lewon1, Christina M Peters1

  • 1University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Psychology, MS 296, 1664 N. Virginia St., Reno, NV 89557, USA.

Behavioural Processes
|November 17, 2022
PubMed
Summary

Mice trained under different food deprivation levels learned discriminations equally well. However, their later test performance depended on the deprivation level during training, showing motivational state-dependent learning.

Keywords:
Food deprivationMotivating operationsMotivationState-dependent learningStimulus discrimination

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Animal Behavior

Background:

  • Motivating operations (MOs) influence behavior by altering the reinforcing effectiveness of stimuli.
  • Understanding MO interactions is crucial for explaining learning and performance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how motivational states during initial training affect subsequent discrimination performance.
  • To examine the interaction between training and testing motivational conditions.

Main Methods:

  • Two groups of mice underwent stimulus discrimination training under either 24-h or 0-h food deprivation.
  • Response-outcome contingencies were equated across groups during training.
  • Both groups were tested under both 24-h and 0-h food deprivation conditions.

Main Results:

  • No significant differences in discrimination ratios were observed between groups.
  • Mice trained under 24-h deprivation showed higher response rates during the 24-h deprivation test.
  • Mice trained under 0-h deprivation showed higher response rates during the 0-h deprivation test.

Conclusions:

  • Learning during discrimination training is influenced by the prevailing motivational state.
  • Performance on learned discriminations is sensitive to the motivational state at the time of testing.
  • These findings support the concept of motivational state-dependent learning.