The control of schedule-induced polydipsia: Frequency and magnitude of reinforcement

Abstract Rats bar-pressing for 180 45-mg food pellets per experimental session became polydipsic at fixed-interval 5 sec. As the length of the fixed-interval food schedule was increased from 2 to 120 sec with one food pellet delivered per reinforcement, the degree of polydipsia for all rats increased monotonically to a maximum. With increases in the fixed-interval length beyond 120 sec, all animals showed a decrease in the level of water intake. When two pellets were delivered per reinforcement with total number of pellets per session remaining constant, the function relating water intake per session and fixed-interval length was, for all rats, similar in shape to the one-pellet function, but below it. Water intake per reinforcement interval, however, was greater for the two-pellet reinforcement magnitude than for the one-pellet magnitude over most of the fixed-interval lengths investigated. The decrease in total session water intake in the two-pellet condition was attributable to the decreased number of reinforcement intervals and the consequent decreased number of drinking occasions per session.

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