Campbell, Laura S.

Dougan, Faculty Advisor, James D.

Digital Commons @ Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUJohn Wesley Powell Student ResearchConference 1993, 4th Annual JWP ConferenceMay 8th, 9:30 AM - 4:30 PMThe Effects of Session Time and Satiation on theForm of the VI Response FunctionLaura S. CampbellIllinois Wesleyan UniversityJames D. Dougan, Faculty AdvisorIllinois Wesleyan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprcThis Event is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Laura S. Campbell and James D. Dougan, Faculty Advisor, "The Effects of Session Time and Satiation on the Form of theVI Response Function" (May 8, 1993). John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference. Paper 43.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprc/1993/posters/43THE EFFECTS OF SESSION TIME AND SATIATION ON THE FORM OF VI RESPONSE FUNCTION. Laura S. Campbell, Dept of Psychology, IWU James D. Dougan. '" There has been considerable controversy over the empirical form of the function relating response rate to reinforcement rate on simple Variable Interval (VI) schedules. Traditional theories predict monotonic functions, while more recent economic and regulatory theories predict bitonic functions. Two experiments examined the effects of session time and satiation on the form of the VI response function. In Experiment l ,  rats pressed bars for food on a series of VI schedules differing in reinforcement rate. All sessions were lO-minutes long, but occurred at either the start or at the end of a larger 30-minute session. Bitonic functions were found in both conditions, although response rates were generally higher when responding occurred at the end of the 30-minute block. In Experiment 2, rats experienced the same series of schedules during lO-minute sessions, but received pre-session feedings before half of the sessions. Again, bitonic functions were found under both conditions, although the functions were more strongly bitonic in the prefeeding condition. The present experiments support regulatory and economic theories over traditional theories because bitonic functions predominated. 

The Effects of Session Time and Satiation on the Form of the VI Response Function

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The Effects of Session Time and Satiation on the Form of the VI Response Function

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