Abstract

Operant choice theories pose that behavior distribution between options is ruled by the consequences related with these options. Evidence suggests that rats’ performance is attuned to the affordances that the operant setting provides, such as lever height. Our aim was to explore in rats whether lever press distribution was influenced by the affordances furnished by two levers. Lever pressing was reinforced in two concurrent equal variable-ratio schedules of reinforcement, and in successive conditions lever height was varied asymmetrically—that is, one lever was higher than the other. Results showed a quadratic relation between response rates and lever height, a linear trend between preference and lever height, and higher between- and within-bout response rates on the lower lever in four out of the six pairs of lever heights assessed. These findings suggest that intermediate lever heights favored lever pressing with faster bout initiation and faster within-bout responding, and support the idea that preorganized properties of behavior (i.e., the organism’s abilities) interact with the environment before the operant contingency takes place.

摘要

操作者选择理论提出，选项之间的行为分布受与这些选项相关的后果的支配。有证据表明，大鼠的表现与操作环境提供的承受能力（例如杠杆高度）相吻合。我们的目的是在大鼠中探索杠杆压力机的分布是否受两个杠杆提供的负担的影响。杠杆压制在两个同时相等的可变比率的加固计划中进行了加固，并且在连续的情况下，杠杆高度不对称地变化-也就是说，一个杠杆比另一个杠杆高。结果显示，在评估的六对杠杆高度中的四对中，响应率与杠杆高度之间呈二次关系，偏好与杠杆高度之间呈线性趋势，而较低杠杆的回内和回内响应率较高。