The adjustment of goldfish to reduction in magnitude of reward in massed trials

Abstract

For a group of goldfish trained in a runway under conditions of highly massed practice, reduction in magnitude of reward produced a gradual decline in performance to the level of a small-reward control group but no suggestion of negative successive contrast. These results are consistent with the suggestion that reward plays a somewhat different role in the learning of fish and rats. They also serve to extend the range of conditions under which the stimulus aftereffects of reward come to control the instrumental behavior of fish. © 1974 Psychonomic Society, Inc.