Master's Theses

Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Abstract

The behavioral consequences of septal lesions were investigated on the retention performance of rats using a count schedule of reinforcement. This schedule requires the subject to respond a fixed number of times on one manipulandum, and then shift to another manipulandum and make one response on it for reinforcement. The present experiment sought to explore the discrimination of response-produced feedback controversy regarding the functional role of the septal area in behavior. The results were analyzed in terms of mean run lengths, modal run lengths, and frequency of run lengths averaged over five 3-day blocks. The results demonstrate a considerable increase in total number of runs for each animal and a tendency towards much shorter run lengths for four of the animals after the lesion. The results suggest that septal lesions led to adaptive performance and did not impair the response produced feedback process but acted differentially upon various aspects of count schedule performance.

Keywords

Psychology

Advisor

Dr. Robert Adams

Date of Award

Spring 1976

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Rights

© The Author(s)

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