A brief opportunity to run does not function as a reinforcer for mice selected for high daily wheel-running rates.
Even favorite activities can fail as rewards if the portion is too small.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Scientists bred mice to run a lot every day. Then they asked: will these mice press a lever for just 90 seconds on the wheel?
They compared the high-runners to normal mice. The lever only worked during short tests, not all day.
What they found
The super-runners quit pressing. Brief wheel time did not work as a reward for them.
When the same mice could run for 30 minutes after each press, they worked as hard as the normal group. Duration mattered.
How this fits with other research
Allen et al. (1989) showed that even a bad signal can reinforce behavior if it tells when food is coming. Jones et al. (2007) flips that idea: a usually good reward lost power because it was too short.
Harrison et al. (1959) proved that stopping loud noise can reinforce. Their noise offset worked; the brief wheel did not. The difference is breed-specific drive. Longer access restored the effect.
Weisman et al. (1975) found rats would press a switch just to turn the lights off during extinction. Like the mice, the animals worked for a change in conditions, but only when the change was big enough.
Why it matters
Check the size of the reward, not just its name. A client who loves movement may still not work for a 30-second trampoline break. Offer longer or richer access, or pick a different reinforcer. Always test, never assume.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Run a 2-minute vs 10-minute activity break test during one session and graph the response rate.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Mice from replicate lines, selectively bred based on high daily wheel-running rates, run more total revolutions and at higher average speeds than do mice from nonselected control lines. Based on this difference it was assumed that selected mice would find the opportunity to run in a wheel a more efficacious consequence. To assess this assumption within an operant paradigm, mice must be trained to make a response to produce the opportunity to run as a consequence. In the present study an autoshaping procedure was used to compare the acquisition of lever pressing reinforced by the opportunity to run for a brief opportunity (i.e., 90 s) between selected and control mice and then, using an operant procedure, the effect of the duration of the opportunity to run on lever pressing was assessed by varying reinforcer duration over values of 90 s, 30 min, and 90 s. The reinforcement schedule was a ratio schedule (FR 1 or VR 3). Results from the autoshaping phase showed that more control mice met a criterion of responses on 50% of trials. During the operant phase, when reinforcer duration was 90 s, almost all control, but few selected mice completed a session of 20 reinforcers; however, when reinforcer duration was increased to 30 min almost all selected and control mice completed a session of 20 reinforcers. Taken together, these results suggest that selective breeding based on wheel-running rates over 24 hr may have altered the motivational system in a way that reduces the reinforcing value of shorter running durations. The implications of this finding for these mice as a model for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are discussed. It also is proposed that there may be an inherent trade-off in the motivational system for activities of short versus long duration.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2007 · doi:10.1901/jeab.2007.62-06