Transformation of a fixed-interval schedule of water reinforcement into one procedure of schedule-induced drinking

Abstract

To determine whether or not the specific effects of the schedule-induced drinking variables are anomalous to conditioning, in the present study food deprivation, periodic food delivery and continuous water delivery were added one by one to a fixed-interval schedule of water reinforcement, until this operant procedure was transformed into one of schedule-induced drinking. In the first experimental condition three water-deprived rats licked an empty tube to obtain a drop of water according to 64-s fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement. Once licking stabilized into a scalloped pattern during the inter reinforcement interval, the schedule-induced drinking variables were added. The scalloped licking pattern was transformed progressively into an inverted U-function, typical of schedule-induced drinking. The progressive transition between both response patterns showed that the independent variables never ceased to reflect widely known effects in both, the motivation and conditioning literatures. Therefore, it seems unjustified to categorize schedule induced drinking as a phenomenon anomalous to conditioning