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The effect of hunger and effort on response variability in rats

Mingee, Catherine M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1333629053

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Psychology.
Response variability may be influenced by multiple factors in the environment as well as an individual’s previous experiences. This study was designed to investigate the effect of hunger drive and effortfulness of response on rats’ response variability in a two-choice lever press situation. Rats were tested for a total of four weeks, Week 1 was considered to be between-groups and Weeks 1 – 4 were combined to test within-subjects data. Variability was measured in three different ways: the number of times the response location changed in a single session, the length of the first group of responses before changing response and the mean length of responses before changing response location. Between-groups data suggest neither hunger nor effort influence response variability in rats. Within-subjects data suggest hunger did not play a role in response variability, however, effort was significant. Variability of response increased when responding required less effort, as illustrated by all three measures of variability: Fchanges(1,14)=10.41, p<.05, d=2.27, Ffirstrun(1,14)=11.54, p<.005, d=1.82, Fmeanrunlength(1,14)=10.95, p<.005, d=1.77.
Harvard Armus, PhD (Committee Chair)
Stephen Christman, PhD (Committee Member)
Michael Dowd, PhD (Committee Member)
John Jasper, PhD (Committee Member)
Laura Seligman, PhD (Committee Member)
104 p.
Animals; Experimental Psychology; Psychology
animal learning; effort; response variability; variability

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Mingee, C. M. (2012). The effect of hunger and effort on response variability in rats [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1333629053

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mingee, Catherine. The effect of hunger and effort on response variability in rats. 2012. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1333629053.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mingee, Catherine. "The effect of hunger and effort on response variability in rats." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1333629053

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1333629053
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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.