Abstract
Rats were trained to leave an array of food after they had consumed a fixed number (three, four, or five) of food items. This discrimination remained in effect despite a shift from 45-mg Noyes pellets to larger and irregularly sized sunflower seeds. The present demonstration replicates work first reported 50 years ago by Otto Koehler and his associates (e.g., Marold, 1939; see also Koehler, 1950), who used avian subjects, and, like those studies, it involved both positive and negative social reinforcement. The present procedure provided a rare instance in which numerical control was exerted over behavior that was primarily consummatory in nature. The results are viewed in terms of the wider literature of numerical competence in animals and are discussed in terms of a numerical process known asprotocounting (Davis & P’erusse, 1988b).
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These data were presented in various forms at meetings of the Animal Behavior Society (1987) and the Psychonomic Society (1986). The research was supported in part by Grant A0673 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to H. Davis. We are grateful to Rachelle P’erusse and Associate Editor Marcia Spetch for their critical comments.
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Davis, H., Bradford, S.A. Numerically restricted food intake in the rat in a free-feeding situation. Animal Learning & Behavior 19, 215–222 (1991). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197879
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197879