Operant conditioning of licking in vampire bats, Desmodus rotundus

Abstract

Four adult female vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus), weighing 28-35 g, were autoshaped to keypress to obtain 0.5-ml quantities of defibrinated cattle blood reinforcer. Keypressing required 7 g of force, and response rates were moderately low (500-600 presses/h). Because of the force requirements, the apparatus was then modified so that licking from a tube would deliver the blood reinforcer. Bats were trained on variable-ratio, fixed-ratio, variable-interval, and fixed-interval schedules. Some of the schedules produced lick-response rates averaging 60/min. With conditioned suppression (light stimulus paired with brief electric footshock), bats learned within 15 sessions to completely suppress operant licking while the light was on. © 1974 Psychonomic Society, Inc.