Effects of Drive and Partial Reinforcement on Extinction Both between and within Daily Sessions

Abstract

40 albino rats were assigned randomly to the cells of a 2 × 2 factorial design consisting of per cent reinforcement (50% and 100%) by deprivation (high and low). Speed measures were obtained from two segments of a straight-alley runway for 80 acquisition and 56 extinction trials with 4 trials given per day. Deprivation effects were found over the closely spaced trials within daily sessions for both acquisition and extinction. In extinction the interaction of drive and per cent reinforcement within daily sessions lends support to a frustration-theory explanation of extinction behavior. The lack of deprivation-produced differences in the size of the partial reinforcement effect over days is also consistent with this explanation.