When an organism's action is based on an anticipation of its consequences, that action is said to be goal-directed. It has long been thought that goal-directed control is made possible by experiencing a strong correlation between response rates and reward rates (Dickinson, 1985). To test this idea, we designed a set of experiments to determine whether the response rate-reward rate correlation is a reliable predictor of goal-directed control on interval schedules. In Experiment 1, rats were trained on random interval (RI) schedules in which the response rate-reward rate correlation was manipulated across groups. In tests of reward devaluation, rats behaved in a goal-directed manner regardless of the experienced correlation. In Experiment 2, rats once again experienced either a strong or weak correlation, but on RI schedules with lower overall reward densities. This time, behavior appeared habitual regardless of the experienced correlation. Experiment 3 confirmed that the density of the RI schedule influences goal-directed control, and also revealed that extensive training on these schedules resulted in goal-directed action. Finally, in Experiment 4 goal-directed responding was greater and emerged sooner on fixed than random interval schedules, but, again, was manifest after extensive training on the RI schedule. Taken together, our data suggest that goal-directed and habitual control are not determined by the correlation between response rates and reward rates. We discuss the importance of temporal uncertainty, action-outcome contiguity, and reinforcement probability in goal-directed control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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间隔时间表上的目标导向控制不取决于行动结果相关性。

当生物体的行动基于对后果的预期时，该行动被认为是目标导向的。长期以来人们一直认为，通过在响应率和报酬率之间建立强烈的相关性，可以实现目标导向的控制（Dickinson，1985）。为了验证这一想法，我们设计了一组实验来确定响应率-回报率相关性是否是间隔计划中目标控制的可靠预测指标。在实验1中，按照随机间隔（RI）计划训练大鼠，其中在各个组之间操纵响应率-回报率相关性。在奖励贬值的测试中，无论经历的相关性如何，大鼠的行为均以目标为导向。在实验2中，大鼠再次经历了强关联或弱关联，但在RI计划中，总体奖励密度较低。这次，行为似乎是习惯性的，而与所经历的相关性无关。实验3证实了RI进度表的密度会影响目标导向的控制，并且还表明，对这些进度表进行大量培训会导致目标导向的动作。最后，在实验4中，目标导向的响应比固定间隔时间表更大，并且在固定间隔时间表上出现得更快，但同样，在对RI时间表进行了广泛的训练之后，它又很明显。两者合计，我们的数据表明目标导向和习惯控制不是由响应率和奖励率之间的相关性确定的。我们讨论了时间不确定性，行动成果连续性和强化概率在目标导向控制中的重要性。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2019 APA，