Effects of Deprivation Upon Counting and Timing in Rats

Two procedures were used in an investigation of the effects of deprivation upon counting and timing. Under the first procedure, fixed minimum interval (FMI), the rat received liquid reinforcement every time it pressed bar B after having waited a minimum of 5 sec following a press on bar A. Under the second procedure, fixed consecutive number (FCN), reinforcement was delivered every time the rat pressed bar B following a run of at least four consecutive responses on bar A. Water deprivation was varied over a set of values ranging from 4 to 56 hr. Deprivation had almost no effect on the waiting time in the FMI procedure, or on the number of responses per run in the FCN procedure. With both procedures, increasing deprivation shortened the pause between reinforcement and the next response. In the FCN procedure, the speed with which the runs were executed increased with increasing deprivation, although the number of responses in these runs was relatively unaffected.