This study investigated the effect of response effort on the percentage of short interresponse times under constant and varied effort conditions. After training on a lever-pressing task, rats were subjected to either a constant or a varied 10-g or 55-g response force (effort) requirement. The percentage of short interresponse times (under 1 sec.) was recorded in both acquisition and extinction phases of testing. The findings showed no effect of effort on the occurrence of short interresponse times during acquisition. However, there was a significant effort effect in extinction for the varied effort group, the higher force requirement resulting in a greater percentage of short interresponse times.
References
1.
AmselA. (1958) The role of frustrative nonreward in noncontinuous reward situations. Psychological Bulletin, 55, 102–117.
2.
AmselA.HancockW. (1957) Motivational properties of frustration: Relation of frustration to antedating goal factors. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53, 126–131.
3.
AmselA.ProutyD. L. (1959) Frustrative factors in selective learning with reward and nonreward as discriminanada. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 224–230.
4.
ArmusH. L. (1986) Effect of response effort requirement on frequency of short IRTs. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 24, 284–285.
5.
ArmusH. L. (1988) Effect of response effort requirement on relative frequency of short interresponse times: CRF and FR-5 reinforcement schedules. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 26, 139–140.
6.
ArmusH. L.MikesellD. M. (1988) Effect of response effort on the percentage of short IRTs under delayed and immediate reinforcement. Psychological Reports, 63, 943–946.
7.
BrownJ. S.FarberI. E. (1951) Emotions conceptualized as intervening variables—with suggestions toward a theory of frustration. Psychological Bulletin, 48, 465–493.
