Control of schedule-induced polydipsi: type, size, and spacing of meals

Rats were given daily 1-min variable-interval sessions for several types of food delivered in various amounts per reinforcement and the concurrent, schedule-induced polydipsia was measured. Dry, solid food was neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the development of polydipsia. Small portions of liquid Standard Monkey Diet produced polydipsia, but 45-mg dextrose or sucrose pellets did not. Within the range studied, smaller portions of both solid and liquid foods produced more drinking than larger portions per reinforcement. Two-min variable-interval sessions produced a greater polydipsic response than 1-min variable-interval, even though the number of 45-mg Noyes pellets allowed per session was held constant. Polydipsia was greatly attenuated on these schedules when the number of pellets remained constant, but were delivered two at a time. Within the ranges studied, the concurrent polydipsic response was increased by decreasing the rate of food acquisition, either by using smaller portions of food per reinforcement or by increasing the interreinforcement time.     

Changeover delay and concurrent schedules: some effects on relative performance measures

The pigeon and the rat partition total response output between both schedules of a concurrent variable-interval pair. The quantitative nature of a partition seems critically dependent on the relative rates with which the two schedules provide reinforcements for responding, in addition to the changeover delay. The manner in which the changeover delay controls the partition was studied by varying the duration of the changeover delay from 0 to 20 sec with each of two pairs of concurrent variable-interval schedules, viz., Conc VI 1.5-min VI 1.5-min and Conc VI 1-min VI 3-min. Rats served as the subjects and brain stimulation was employed as the reinforcer. When the schedules were Conc VI 1.5-min VI 1.5-min, relative response rate approximated 0.50 at all values of the changeover delay. When the schedules were Conc VI 1-min VI 3-min, relative response rate, computed with respect to the VI 1-min schedule, increased when the duration of the changeover delay increased. Changeover rate decreased when the duration of the changeover delay increased. The decrease was the same for both VI schedules of the Conc VI 1.5-min VI 1.5-min pair but was more rapid for the VI 3-min schedule of the Conc VI 1-min VI 3-min pair.     

Two visual mechanisms underlying the behavior of fish

Summary Studies of motion-detection by fish reveal two separate processes, which are hypothetically linked to different kinds of behavior. Furthermore, studies of interocular transfer with mirror-image shape discriminations also indicate two distinct mechanisms for the representation of visual directions. From these two kinds of experiment, it seems that visual processes subserving orientation of the fish to a moving object should be clearly distinguished from processes by which the fish evaluates the identity or activity of the object.

---

Zusammenfassung Untersuchungen der Bewegungswahrnehmung von Fischen zeigen zwei verschiedene Prozesse auf, die mit zwei verschiedenen Verhaltensweisen in Beziehung gesetzt werden. Eine Analyse des interokularen Transfers mit Unterscheidung spiegelbildlicher Formen läßt außerdem erkennen, daß zwei verschiedene Mechanismen für die Repräsentation visueller Richtungen verantwortlich sind. Aus diesen Experimenten wird geschlossen, daß jene visuellen Prozesse, welche der Orientierung des Fisches in bezug auf ein sich bewegendes Objekt dienen, scharf unterschieden werden sollten von denen, durch welche der Fisch die Identität oder Aktivität des Objektes beurteilt.