Reinforcer predictability and stimulus salience promote discriminated habit learning.

ABSTRACT: Instrumental (operant) behavior can be goal directed, but after extended practice it can become a habit triggered by environmental stimuli. There is little information, however, about the variables that encourage habit learning, or about the development of discriminated habits that are actually triggered by specific stimuli. (Most studies of habit in animal learning have used free-operant methods.) In the present experiments, rats received training in which a lever press was reinforced only in the presence of a discrete stimulus (S) and the status of the behavior as goal-directed or habitual was determined by reinforcer devaluation tests. Experiment 1 compared lever insertion and an auditory cue (tone) in their ability to support habit learning. Despite prior speculation in the literature,

SUBMITTER: Thrailkill EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8483603 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature