Investigating mechanism of coordenated responding of pair of rats

• Grant number: 24/18268-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Lucas Couto de Carvalho
• Grantee: Fellipe Verçosa Guinatto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências (FC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Experiments demonstrate that coordinated episodes follow the laws of operant behavior: (1) the response-reinforcement contingency maintains high levels of coordination; (2) reinforcement schedules alter the rate and temporal patterns of coordination; and (3) coordination can be controlled by stimuli. Recently, it has been shown that the simultaneity of reinforcers is essential for maintaining coordination, but methodological gaps prevent definitive conclusions. This experiment will modify the procedure of da Silva (2022) to clarify these functional relationships. Ten rats, in five pairs, will respond under tandem schedules that vary the requirement for coordination and the distribution of reinforcements. The reinforcers will be organized in three forms: (1) alternating, with access to water alternating between the rats in a fixed order, contingent on coordinated responses (responses from both rats occurring within ¿ 0.2 s); (2) simultaneous, where both will access reinforcers simultaneously if two responses, one from each rat, occur within ¿ 2.0 s (pseudo-coordinated responses); and (3) simultaneous, where both will access reinforcers simultaneously if two responses, one from each rat, occur within ¿ 0.2 s (coordinated responses). Conditions 2 and 3 will serve as controls for the first condition. An ABACA design will be used, where A, B, and C correspond to arrangements 1, 2, and 3, respectively. High frequencies of coordinated responses are expected in Condition A, but not in Conditions B and C.