OBSERVATIONAL EXTINCTION - OBSERVATION OF NONREINFORCED RESPONDING REDUCES RESISTANCE TO EXTINCTION IN RATS

Rats trained to push a joystick to the left or right for food reward w ere given two successive tests in which neither response was reinforce d. Prior to Test 1, subjects were either confined in the apparatus wit h a passive conspecific (Group None), or allowed to observe a conspeci fic demonstrator making 50 nonreinforced responses in the direction th at had been rewarded during observer training (Group Same) or in the o pposite direction (Group Different). In Test 1, Group Same made fewer previously reinforced responses than did Group Different, which made f ewer than Group None, and Groups Same and Different each made fewer pr eviously nonreinforced responses than did Group None. In Test 2, Group Same made fewer previously reinforced responses than did Group None. These results indicate that observation of nonreinforced responding ca n reduce resistance to extinction (Test 1) and spontaneous recovery (T est 2) in rats.