Prospective factors contribute little to within-session changes in responding

Five rats pressed levers for food delivered by a multiple variable interval 1-min variable interval 1-min schedule. In theunpredictable conditions, sessions were 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100 min long, determined randomly at the beginning of each session. In thepredictable conditions, each of these session durations was presented for 15 consecutive sessions. Rate of responding changed systematically within the session even when the end of the session was unpredictable. This implies that prospective factors related to anticipation of the end of the session are not necessary for producing withinsession changes in responding. Within-session patterns of responding were also similar for the predictable and unpredictable conditions. This suggests that prospective factors contributed little to the form of the within-session patterns under the present conditions.