Sniffing and fixed-ratio behavior for sucrose and brain stimulation reward in the rat.

Abstract The relation between inspiration-rate and instrumental behavior in rats was examined using a fixed-ratio ten schedule of either sucrose or brain stimulation reinforcement. In the first experiment, rats demonstrated orderly goal gradients in their inspiration rates while pressing for sucrose. This result was replicated in a second experiment in which rats pressed on the fixed-ratio schedule for brain stimulation reinforcement. In both experiments, increasing inspiration rates were associated with relatively constant or decreasing pressing rates. The relevance of these results to classical or contiguity conditioning interpretations of instrumental or motivated behavior was briefly discussed.