Decremental and facilitative effects in the straight-alley runway under partial reinforcement.

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Abstract
Rats were trained on a runway under partial (alternating or random) or consistent schedules of reward. In early stages of training the partial Ss performed better than the consistent Ss on trials following reinforcement, but inferior to the consistent Ss on the trials following nonreinforcement for the partial Ss. "The introduction of reinforcement into the pattern facilitates behavior in the early stages of training and . . . such facilitation is not exclusively associated with asymptotic performance." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)