Halpern M, Lyon M
J Exp Anal Behav. 1966 Jul;9(4):357-67. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1966.9-357.
Twenty-six rats were used to study the development of stable conditioned responding to terminate white noise (100 or 105 db) in a tilt cage apparatus. Preliminary work, with one end of the cage consistently associated with silence, demonstrated stability at a high level of cumulative noise-off time per session. Time spent at the noise-off cage end was unaffected by lay-off and showed adaptation to reversal of the cage end functions. Variability in reversal acquisition, insensitivity to stimulus intensity changes and persistence in remaining at one end of the cage in the absence of noise-termination contingencies indicated the need for more precise behavioral control. A schedule programming several reversals of the no-noise end at variable intervals within each session was developed. Performance on the latter schedule was characterized by stability of high noise-off times and also proved more sensitive than the preliminary method to stimulus intensity changes (55, 70, 100 db) as measured by both cumulated noise-off time and cage crossing rates. The ease of training combined with sensitivity to stimulus change and the lack of highly specific motor response requirements make this technique promising for use with animals potentially debilitated by drugs or surgical after-effects.
26只大鼠被用于研究在倾斜笼装置中对终止白噪声（100或105分贝）形成稳定条件反应的发展情况。初步实验中，笼子的一端始终与安静状态相关联，结果表明在每次实验中累积的无噪声时间处于高水平时具有稳定性。在无噪声的笼子一端所花费的时间不受休息的影响，并且显示出对笼子两端功能反转的适应性。反转习得的变异性、对刺激强度变化的不敏感性以及在没有噪声终止条件下持续停留在笼子一端的情况表明需要更精确的行为控制。制定了一个程序表，在每次实验中以可变间隔对无噪声端进行多次反转。在后者的程序表上的表现以高无噪声时间的稳定性为特征，并且通过累积无噪声时间和穿越笼子的速率测量，也证明比初步方法对刺激强度变化（55、70、100分贝）更敏感。训练的简易性、对刺激变化的敏感性以及对高度特定运动反应要求的缺乏使得这种技术有望用于可能因药物或手术后遗症而虚弱的动物。
