THE NATURE OF SEXUAL REINFORCEMENT

Sexual reinforcers are not part of a regulatory system involved in the maintenance of critical metabolic processes, they differ for males an d females, they differ as a function of species and mating system, and they show ontogenetic and seasonal changes related to endocrine condi tions. Exposure to a member of the opposite sex without copulation can be sufficient for sexual reinforcement. However, copulatory access is a stronger reinforcer, and copulatory opportunity can serve to enhanc e the reinforcing efficacy of stimulus features of a sexual partner. C onversely, under certain conditions, noncopulatory exposure serves to decrease reinforcer efficacy. Many common learning phenomena such as a cquisition, extinction, discrimination learning, second-order conditio ning, and latent inhibition have been demonstrated in sexual condition ing. These observations extend the generality of findings obtained wit h more conventional reinforcers, but the mechanisms of these effects a nd their gender and species specificity remain to be explored.