Depletive and repletive autoshaping schedules

Abstract

An experiment investigated the effects of depletive and repletive autoshaping schedules on signal-directed behavior in rats. Subjects that experienced a repletive schedule, in which the probability of the conditioned stimulus’s being followed by response-independent food increased throughout the session, exhibited a gradual increase in signal-directed responding throughout a session, and contacted the conditioned stimulus significantly more often than did nonpaired control subjects. Rats that experienced a depleting schedule, in which the probability of the conditioned stimulus’s being followed by food decreased throughout a session, showed a decreasing trend in signal-directed behavior during a session. Nonpaired control groups showed no within-session trends in conditioned stimulus contacts. © 1984, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.