Cooperative responding in rats: II. Performance on fixed-ratio schedules of mutual reinforcement |
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Authors: | Lucas Couto de Carvalho Letícia dos Santos Alceu Regaço Kalliu Carvalho Couto Deisy das Graças de Souza João Claudio Todorov |
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Affiliation: | 1. Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil;2. Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil National Institute of Science and Technology on Behavior, Cognition and Teaching (INCT-ECCE), Brazil;3. Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway;4. National Institute of Science and Technology on Behavior, Cognition and Teaching (INCT-ECCE), Brazil |
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Abstract: | Coordinated responses of 5 dyads of rats were investigated under fixed-ratio (FR) schedules of mutual water reinforcement. Coordinated responding was defined as 2 consecutive lever-presses, 1 from each of 2 rats, occurring <.5 s apart. In the FR schedules, each coordinated episode was defined as 1 response in the FR sequence. The size of FR schedules was parametrically manipulated assuming the values of FR 1, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 50, and 9, in this order. Each FR remained in effect until responding reached stability. Under all conditions, pairs of rats received access to water simultaneously (mutual reinforcement). Rates and proportions of coordinated responding showed a bitonic inverted U-shaped function of ratio size. Postreinforcement pauses increased systematically as the interreinforcement interval increased. Local rates and proportions increased as a function of response location within ratios. Results of a control condition with relaxed temporal constraints for mutual reinforcement showed decreases in rates and proportion of coordinated responses, suggesting that the coordinated responses were controlled by the mutual reinforcement contingencies. The present experiment showed that coordinated responding is quantitatively affected by 3 properties of FR schedules: response requirement, reinforcement rates, and proximity to reinforcement. |
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Keywords: | coordinated responses cooperation fixed-ratio mutual reinforcement water rats |
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