The objective of this research is to integrate the study of learning with the study of the temporal, organizational, and functional control of behavior. Typical learning paradigms constrain presumed nonlearning determinants of behavior without sufficient understanding of their contribution resulting in a limited, oversimplified, and even incorrect analyses of behavior. Among these constraints are: the isolation of an unanalyzed portion of the animal's circadian activity cycle in a short experimental session, the restriction of reward access to that session, the disruption of the ordinary pattern of commerce with the reward within the session, and the schedule-based linkage of two previously independent motivational subsystems. This approach also frequently assumes a perfect integration over time of the costs and benefits of alternative resources, and neglects the complexity of behavioral change within sessions and their interaction with changes outside the session. The overall strategy of the present research is to establish the patterns, periodicities, and motivational organization of multiple behaviors in a 24-hr free-baseline condition, and then to explore their relation to learned behavior using constraints imposed at levels ranging from individual responses to circadian rhythms.
The specific aims of this research are to: (1) describe and determine the control of ultradian episodes of responding; (2) investigate the entrainment of anticipatory behavior by controlled access to food, water, and wheel running; 3) examine the timing and extent of anticipatory and compensatory reactions to deficits in feeding and drinking; (4) explore determinants of the allocation of behavior across sources of food and water separated in time; (5) take advantage of current technology to advance the display and modeling of behavior in 24-hr multi- response environments. The results should provide a systems framework for a more comprehensive theory of behavior and learning, one that can clarify limitations on and opportunities for learning and control, relate field and laboratory work on learning and behavior, and facilitate connections among the study of learning ecology development and physiology.
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