Motivation and reward in learning

foreign albino rats what do you think is the reason for the difference in their behavior hungry the one powerless difference in Drive affect their learning in order to see whether the difference in drive will produce a difference in learning we're going to use an apparatus with two identical compartments one for the animal that is very hungry and another for the animal that is not hungry at the outside end of each compartment is a food delivery apparatus this consists of a stirrup-shaped bar placed above a food dish pressing the bar delivers a small pellet of food into the dish immediately below we will now put the hungry and the satiated animals into the apparatus and watch for differences in learning after being put in an unfamiliar environment both animals are active but the hungry animal is somewhat more active the hungry animal remains active but as the satiated one becomes adapted to the new environment he settles down and becomes inactive watch the wide variety of responses which the hungry animal makes since each of these responses occurs without reward it is soon displaced by a new response the behavior is variable what responses do you think the other rat is making the satiated rat is inactive but even if he had hit the bar and got a pellet food would not be a reward without the drive of hunger the hungry ride is active he stands up near the bar but just misses it the correct response of pressing the bar cannot be rewarded and learned until it occurs he approaches the food device stands up near the bar presses it but since he does not see the pellet and the food cup he is not rewarded now he finds the pellet and is rewarded for approaching the food cup at last he hits the bar and gets an immediate reward as he learned will it take him as long to press the bar the next time although the animal still makes quite a few irrelevant responses he presses the bar much sooner the second time the occurrence of a single reward has strengthened the tendency to make the response of pressing the bar notice that the rat performs exactly the same response which was rewarded in the next trial you will see that coming up to the bar from a slightly different angle the rat makes a new response he goes around the side of the stirrup instead of down through it he goes back to his old response he still makes a few irrelevant responses watch him go around the side of the bar again this response gradually wins out because it is rewarded the fastest and with the least effort on the next trial you'll see that the animal starts down to the food dish before he has pressed the bar hard enough to get a pellet he makes several anticipatory errors which are not rewarded and regresses to his old response of diving through the stirrup these anticipatory errors occur for a number of Trials and then are gradually eliminated after several more trials which are not shown in the picture the hungry animal has eliminated irrelevant responses he has learned to press the bar efficiently now what do you think the satiated animal has learned to do with this device we can put a mild Electric Shot on the grid on which the rat stands the shock is adjusted to be annoying but not painful foreign shock is off pressing the Stirrup bar turns off the shop although the shock is not strong you will see that it supplies enough drive to produce a radical change in the behavior of the satiated rack he hits the bar the shock goes off and he's rewarded he hits the bar and is rewarded again after a few more trials which are not shown in the picture he has learned to press the bar quickly as soon as the shot goes on in fact when a drive is supplied the satiated animal learns even more rapidly than the hungry one did this is because the drive produced by electric shock is stronger than hunger it makes the rat more active and can be reduced more quickly and completely we have demonstrated that the satiated animal is not innately stupid or lazy all he needs is a little motivation again a mild electric shock can be administered through the Grid on the floor of the apparatus this time it can only be turned off by rotating a wheel as soon as the wheel is moved the shock goes off and stays off till the next trial just as in the preceding demonstration the satiated animal starts responding as soon as a drive is supplied the end of the punishment reinforces the response the behavior of the animal has been radically changed by this training after training of the type you have seen this animal has learned to bite a rubber tube as soon as the shot goes on when he starts biting the experimenter turns off the shock responding to another animal by striking him can also be learned these animals have already been trained the experimenter turns off the shock as soon as they strike each other you have seen the role of Drive in producing activity the hungry animal is active the satiated one is not the hungry animal learns the response which is rewarded by the food that reduces his hunger Drive the satiated animal is inactive without hunger food would not be a reward even if he got it therefore he does not learn but when a drive is supplied by giving him a mild electric shock he suddenly starts responding and quickly learns the response he was making when the shock went off motivation and reward are crucial factors in learning a motivated animal will learn any response which occurs and is promptly followed by a reduction in the strength of the drive in this way motivation and reward control learning