The experiment tests conflicting implications of the conditioning and the facilitation hypothesis of the increase in bar pressing observed under light-onset contingency conditions. Female hooded rats were first given 5 operant test sessions. These were followed by 10 sessions under a successive conditioning-extinction procedure; thereafter, after each light-onset session two successive extinction sessions were given (12 sessions); Ss were then trained under a fixed ratio procedure (6 sessions) and finally were placed under a successive fixed ratio conditioning-extinction procedure. The prediction from a conditioning hypothesis that extinction rates would be consistently higher than during the operant test sessions was confirmed.
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