Devenport L D, Holloway F A
J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1980 Aug;94(4):691-705. doi: 10.1037/h0077703.
Superstitious operant behavior, in all possible respects similar to that described for pigeons, was found to characterize the behavior of male rats with bilateral hippocampal lesions (hippocampals). Robust superfluous activitiess accompanied noncontingent (random time) and shifts from contingent (random interval) to noncontingent pellet delivery. These activities were minimized but not eliminated by an operant contingency. In contrast, sham-operate performance was distinguished by a stripping away of superfluities in all contingency conditions. Although a variety of responses were emitted superstitiously, the topography of behavior in hippocampal rats was not different from that of sham operates. Unlike sham operates, which varied their behavior spontaneously and in response to experimental changes, hippocampals did not cease their repetitive, high frequency sequences until reinforcers were withheld. As the detection of a free operant contingency seems to depend upon response-cued discrimination learning, and in view of the hippocampal failure to generate these cues, a link between superstitious response output and response rigidity is hypothesized. It is proposed that the hippocampus permits the control of behavior by contingency and that without the structure, operant behavior is guided by simple response-reinforcer contiguity.
迷信的操作性行为在所有可能的方面都与描述的鸽子行为相似，被发现是双侧海马损伤（海马体）雄性大鼠行为的特征。强大的多余活动伴随着非偶然（随机时间）以及从偶然（随机间隔）到非偶然颗粒投放的转变。这些活动通过操作性偶然事件被最小化但并未消除。相比之下，假手术操作的表现则是在所有偶然条件下都去除了多余行为。尽管有多种反应是迷信地发出的，但海马体大鼠的行为形态与假手术操作的大鼠并无不同。与假手术操作的大鼠不同，它们会自发改变行为并对实验变化做出反应，海马体大鼠直到强化物被 withheld 才停止其重复的高频序列。由于自由操作性偶然事件的检测似乎取决于反应提示的辨别学习，并且鉴于海马体无法产生这些提示，因此假设迷信反应输出与反应僵化之间存在联系。有人提出，海马体允许通过偶然事件控制行为，并且没有该结构时，操作性行为由简单的反应 - 强化物接近性引导。
