Matthews, T. J., Grigore, M., Tang, L., Doat, M., Kow, L., & Pfaff, D. W. (1997).
Sexual reinforcement in the female rat.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
68, 399-410.
Sexual reinforcement in the female rat was studied in a
preparation that allowed continuous operant responding for access
to a male rat leading to intromission. Experiment 1 used a high
operant level nose-poke response to test the possible reinforcing
effects of some components of access to a male. A simple tone
stimulus used as a conditioned reinforcer and two odor stimuli,
target male bedding and emulsified preputial gland, were tested.
None of these contingent events altered responding above or below
operant level. Access to the male, which was always accompanied
by intromission, immediately increased response rate when it was
made contingent upon the nose-poke response. Performance on
fixed-ratio schedules was erratic, and response rate was low in
comparison to typical food-reinforced responding. An
interresponse-time analysis indicated, however, that some effect
of the ratio contingency may have been present. In Experiment 2,
several modifications of the procedure were tested with the
objective of creating a more tractable preparation for behavior
analysis. Response type and the hormone delivery method were
changed, and 2 target males were used instead of 1. The latter
tripled the average number of reinforcers earned in a single
session. Differences between sexual and other reinforcers are
discussed in terms of procedural, quantitative, and motivational
aspects of the sexual reinforcement procedure.
Key words: sexual reinforcement, sexual motivation, fixed-ratio
schedules, pacing, estrogen, nose poke, rat