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Science 17 August 1979:
Vol. 205. no. 4407, pp. 721 - 723
DOI: 10.1126/science.462183
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Articles

Science, Vol 205, Issue 4407, 721-723
Copyright © 1979 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Superstitious bar pressing in hippocampal and septal rats

LD Devenport

Unlike normal animals or those with sham lesions, rats with hippocampal and septal lesions behaved in an operant chamber as if a dependency existed between pellet delivery and their behavior, despite the fact that reinforcement was based on time, not behavior, and was therefore free. This superstitious behavior did not result from a general inability to inhibit responding, as responding rapidly ceased when the pellets were discontinued. These findings suggest that the hippocampus integrates information regarding response-reinforcer relations, which in the normal rat permits superfluous operant behavior to be eliminated.


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