Control rate of response or reinforcement and amphetamine's effect on behavior.
Baseline response speed, not reinforcement frequency, decides whether amphetamine will raise or lower operant behavior.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave rats amphetamine while they pressed a lever for food.
They held reinforcement rate steady in one test and let the rat’s own speed vary.
In the other test they held the rat’s speed steady and varied how often food came.
This showed which factor—speed or food frequency—decides the drug’s effect.
What they found
When food came at the same pace, faster rats sped up more on the drug.
When rats moved at the same pace, more food made the drug slow them down.
The key is the rat’s own response speed, not how often food arrives.
How this fits with other research
Billings et al. (1985) ran the same drug and saw the same rule: add a clear light cue and the drug hurts performance less, even when food rate stays flat.
Lancioni et al. (2006) moved the test to kids with ADHD. Adderall still shifted how often kids picked one button over another, proving the rule holds in humans.
McMillan (1973) and Wilson et al. (1973) looked at punished instead of rewarded presses. Amphetamine only raised the low, shocked rates—again, the starting speed set the outcome.
Why it matters
If a client on stimulant meds suddenly talks more or less, check their baseline speed, not just how often you give tokens.
Keep response rates steady with cues or short intervals if you want drug side effects to stay small.
This old rat paper still guides your clinical guess when behavior swings after a dose change.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Graph each client’s response rate before a med change; use that line to judge if later shifts are drug effects or your program working.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The roles of control response rate and reinforcement frequency in producing amphetamine's effect on operant behavior were evaluated independently in rats. Two multiple schedules were arranged in which one variable, either response rate or reinforcement frequency, was held constant and the other variable manipulated. A multiple differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate seven-second yoked variable-interval schedule was used to equate reinforcement frequencies at different control response rates between multiple-schedule components. Amphetamine increased responding under the variable-interval component. In contrast, amphetamine decreased responding equivalently between components of a multiple random-ratio schedule that produced similar control response rates at different reinforcement frequencies. The results provide experimental support to the rate-dependency principle that control rate of responding is an important determinant of amphetamine's effect on operant behavior.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1983 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1983.40-123