Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

A JOURNAL primarily for the original publication of experiments relevant to the behavior
of individual organisms. Review articles and theoretical papers will occasionally be
invited.

BOARD OF EDITORS
C. B. FERSTER, Indiana University Medical Center, EXECUTIVE EDITOR; D. G. ANGER,
Upjohn Co., APPARATUS EDITOR; J. E. ANLIKER, Harvard Medical School; N. H. AZRIN,
Anna State Hospital; D. S. BLOUGH, Brown University; J. J. BOREN, Merck Institute;
J. V. BRADY, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; P. B. DEWS, Harvard Medical
School; R. J. HERRNSTEIN, Harvard University; F. S. KELLER, Columbia University;
0. R. LINDSLEY, Harvard Medical School, SECRETARY-TREASURER; W. H. MORSE,
Harvard Medical School; W. N. SCHOENFELD, Columbia University; M. SIDMAN, Walter
Reed Army Institute of Research; B. F. SKINNER, Harvard University; T. VERHAVE, Eli
Lilly Co. STAFF: MARILYN FERSTER, Assistant editor; SERENA SCHOENFELD, Production
consultant; LETrY KENNEDY, Assistant to the Secretary-Treasurer.
This Journal is published quarterly by the Society for the Experimental Analysis of
Behavior, Inc. The subscription rate per annual volume is $12.00; for A.P.A. members,
$9.50; for students, $4.50 (beginning with Volume 2, student subscriptions will be $6.50
to conform with postal regulations on second-class mailing privileges). The price of a
single issue is $3.00; orders for less than a full volume will be charged at the single-copy
rate. Claims for missing numbers must be made promptly, and will be met only when
loss has occurred in the mails and so long as reserve inventory permits. Authors will be
required to order a minimum of 100 reprints (charge: $3.00 per Journal page); additional
reprints, to a total of 500, may be ordered at the same rate. Reprints cannot be supplied
for papers and technical notes one page or less in length.
Manuscripts should be submitted to the Executive Editor, C. B. Ferster, Institute of
Psychiatric Research, Indiana University Medical Center, 1100 West Michigan Street,
Indianapolis 7, Indiana. Apparatus notes are submitted directly to the Apparatus
Editor, D. G. Anger, The Upjohn Co., Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Subscriptions, changes of address, and other business correspondence should be ad-
dressed to the Secretary-Treasurer, 0. R. Lindsley, Behavior Research Laboratory,
Metropolitan State Hospital, Trapelo Road, Waltham, Massachusetts. Checks should be
made payable to the Journal.
INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS
In preparing manuscripts, contributors will follow the usage concerning references,
figure and table legends, footnotes, abbreviations, etc., outlined in the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association, 1957 revision. Manuscripts should
be submitted in duplicate, the -author retaining a third copy. Figures are to be supplied
by the author in a form suitable for photographic reproduction: halftone illustrations
as glossy prints, line drawings in black ink on a smooth surface paper. Figures will be
reproduced in the size submitted, with maximum allowable dimensions of 5.5 x 8.5
inches (including legends and titles) for any single figure intended to fill a whole printed
page; these same dimensions serve as guides in cases where two or more figures will ap-
pear together on a single printed page. Tabular matter, when submitted as photocopy or
suitable as such, will follow these same rules of size; when necessary, the Journal will
prepare its own photocopy of tabular matter. Figures and illustrations should be made
as small as possible, consistent with their purpose and importance.
Copyright 1958 by the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Inc. Reproduction for scientific and
scholarly purposes of any material published in the Journal will be permitted following receipt of written request.
A SENSITIVE LEVER FOR OPERANT-CONDITIONING EXPERIMENTS
T. VERHAVE
THE LILLY RESEARCH LABORATORIES

This note describes a lever that has been used with rats and chimpanzees. It has a
Switchcraft Lev-R type switch No. 3002 with one normally closed contact. (Price is
approximately $1.15.) This decreases the travel time necessary to activate program-
ming circuitry. Normally open contacts can be obtained by letting the switch con-
tacts energize the coil of a relay with a set of normally closed contacts. This relay
can be mounted near the switch to provide an auditory feedback. A drawing of the
switch is shown at the top of Fig. 1. It can be screwed directly into a wall through a
0.05 SEC.

KEYER

SIDE VIEW LEVER

7/16-inch opening tapped with a 15/32 32 thread. The threaded collar provided
with the switch can be used as a spacer. A 1 3/4-inch-long, 3/8-inch-wide piece of
brass mounted on top of the insulating spacers contains a small set screw to adjust
the excursion of the lever. A 1 1/2-inch-long aluminum rod of 5/8-inch diameter
fastened with a countersunk Allen-head set-screw replaces the Bakelite switch knob.
The tension of the contact leaves can be varied between 10 and 70 grams. No spon-
taneous changes in tension have occurred after several months of continuous opera-
tion. The lever follows rates as high as 15 responses per second.
The polygraph recording shown in Fig. 1 monitored the rate of pressing of a rat.
The top channel monitored the n.o. contacts on a response translation panel (pulse
former, keyer, or shaper) which transformed each response into a uniform pulse of
about 40 milliseconds. The bottom channel reproduced the performance character-
istics of the n.c. contact of a Potter & Bromfield KRP1 ID 24 v. D.C. relay activated
by the switch contacts. The pen made a downward deflection whenever the switch
contacts opened. The recording includes a burst of responding of 5 responses
emitted during 0.5 second. Within this burst the keyer failed to be energized once
(at the arrow), since the response came during a 40-millisecond interval when the
pulse former was energized. Contact chatter from the contacts of the P & B relay
shows up on the bottom channel just before the seventh response on the top
channel.

220
 WA TER FEEDER
DAVID LESTER
YALE UNIVERSITY

The water feeder diagrammed has been used successfully for two years. The
amount of water that it delivers at each stroke depends on the stroke length and the
cross-section of the syringe, and is easily adjusted over a wide range.
Whenever a reward is to be given, the solenoid (C) is pulsed. The stroke of its
piston (D) is set by the adjusting screw (A), the spring (B) pulling the piston back
N at the end of each stroke. This piston is
always in intimate contact with the pis-
YP VOLTS A.Q ton (E) of the 3-cubic centimeter nylon
G > F E_ D - syringe (G), the spring (F) about this
s = i L jv latter piston maintaining it with such
contact. When the equipment is not acti-
vated, the ground-glass valves (H and
K) in the T-tube (Macalester-Bicknell
Co., New Haven, Connecticut) are
closed. When the solenoid is pulsed,
valve K remains closed and valve H
opens to deliver water through the 1/8-
inch copper tubing (N) and through the
No. 21 needle (P), which is soldered to
WATER FEEDER the tubing, into the trough (S) where the
animal may drink it. As the pistons return to their normal position, valve H closes
and valve K opens, thus refilling the syringe from the 300-cubic centimeter reservoir
(M). The water in the reservoir is kept below the level of valve K.
The entire system, except for the copper tubing, needle, and trough, is mounted
securely in a framework so that no change in its alignment can take place during
the action period of the solenoid. It is important that all connections of the water-
containing system be air-tight. Since there is no restriction on the length of copper
tubing leading to the animal enclosure, it is simple to isolate the animal from the
sound produced by the action of the solenoid.

234
 A NEW SHOCK GRID FOR RATS'
JAMES A. DINSMOOR
INDIANA UNIVERSITY

The conventional shock grid used for rats consists of 1/8-inch brass rods set in
the side walls of the box at intervals of 1/2 to 3/4 inch. A few months ago, I substi-
tuted a grid composed of sections of 5/8-inch, outside-diameter brass tubing spaced
at 9/8 inch from center to center and running from one end of the box to the other
rather than crosswise. This reduced the number of electrodes in the box from four-
teen to six (five for the grid, one for the walls and bar). The polarity alternating
system and associated wiring can now be made smaller and less expensive, and the
percentage of time the current is flowing between any two electrodes may be in-
creased. Biting and grasping of the grid are eliminated, and the flatter surface seems
to provide better and more stable electrical contact. The thicker tubing apparently
discourages attempts to escape through the grid, which is now visually closed, and
the gradually rounded surface serves to prevent the rat from lacerating his nose in
the process. The tubing itself provides structural rigidity for a removable grid. In
several hundreds of hours of exposure to variable-interval escape schedules, a rela-
tively rigorous test condition, the rats have discovered no new means of avoiding
the shock.
'Developed and tested under Research Grant NSF-G3472 from the National Science Foundation.

264
 A SIMPLE AND USEFUL MODIFICATION OF SESSION TIMERS
RONALD T. HILL
RESEARCH DIVISION, AMERICAN CYANAMID COMPANY

It is frequently advisable to end an experimental session with a reinforcement,

with the end of a complete cycle of a multiple schedule, or with some other event
which a session timer will not time exactly. This is usually accomplished by using
other relay panels which lock up when the session timer times out, breaking when
the final event occurs.
We have installed a relay in the session timer with its own "operate" stud. By
wiring the contacts of this relay in parallel with the timed circuit of the timer, the
experiment is locked up until ground is lifted from the operate stud.
In addition to freeing relay panels for other applications, this modification has
been found to greatly simplify the programming of experiments.
Step-by-step instructions for the modification of Foringer session timers will be
supplied by this writer upon request.

290
 A LIQUID DIET FOR ANIMALS IN BEHA VIORA L STUDIES
JOHN F. HERNDON, SAMUEL M. GREENBERG, EDWARD J. VAN LOON,
ROGER T. KELLEHER, LEONARD COOK, and ARNOLD DAVIDSON
SMITH, KLINE & FRENCH LABORATORIES

Both the nutritionist and the psychopharmacologist have been concerned with
the problem of adequate maintenance of experimental animals being used in behav-
ioral studies. In diet-restricted experiments, the danger is always present that inade-
quate nutrition of the animals may adversely affect hunger-motivation studies. A
liquid diet has been developed which has maintained rats and monkeys satisfactorily
over a period of 6 months while they were being used in psychopharmacological
studies.
The composition of the dry mix used in preparation of the liquid diet is as fol-
lows: casein (crude or extracted), 30.0%; sucrose, 42.5%; cellulose (powdered)',
5.0%; salts (USP XIV)2, 5.0%; dextrose-choline mix, 6.25% (containing 24 milli-
grams of choline chloride per gram mix); vitamins A, D, and E sucrose mix, 1.25%
(containing 1,000 USP units of vitamin A3, 100 USP units of vitamin D23, and
12.5 milligrams, vitamin E concentrate4 per gram of mix), and a multi-vitamin-
sucrose mix, 10.0%. This multi-vitamin-sucrose mix contains the following vitamins
(in milligrams per gram of mix): thiamine hydrochloride, 0.25; riboflavin, 0.25;
pyridoxine hydrochloride, 0.25; calcium pantothenate, 1.50; niacin, 1.50; mena-
dione (vitamine K), 0.125; ascorbic acid, 5.0; biotin, 0.025; folic acid, 0.25; para-
amino-benzoic acid, 10.0; inositol, 20.0; and vitamin B12, 0.00375. For practical
reasons the vitamins are prepared as a mix with sucrose to permit rapid weighing
and to facilitate mixing of the vitamins in the diet. Therefore, 2 kilograms of mix is
prepared at one time. The fat-soluble vitamins, which are in a granular or powdered
form, are tumbled in a twin-shell Patterson-Kelly tumbler for mixing. The other
vitamins are mixed thoroughly with portions of sucrose by mortar and pestle, then
tumbled for thorough mixing. Choline chloride and dextrose are mixed rapidly with
mortar and pestle and then sifted through a screen several times to mix thoroughly.
Dry mixes are prepared in 1600-gram lots and stored for periods up to 2 weeks in
a refrigerator. These mixes are weighed easily on a standard torsion balance5 ac-
cording to the following formula:
Ingredients Grams
Casein 480
Sucrose 680
'Alphacel' 80
Salts (USP XIV) 80
Choline Cl-dextrose mix 100
Vitamins A, D, & E-sucrose mix 20
Multivitamin-sucrose mix 160
1600
"Alphacel', Nutritional Biochemical Corp., Cleveland, Ohio.
2General Biochemical Laboratories, Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
3500,000 USP units of vitamin A acetate and 50,000 USP units vitamin D, per gram 'A & D
crystalets', Chas. Pfizer and Company, Inc.
4Dry vitamin E acetate powder, 25%, Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc.
'Toledo Scale Company (500-gram scale).
291
292 HERNDON,GREENBERG, VAN LOON,KELLEHER,COOK AND DA VIDSON

Each batch of the above dry ingredients is mixed in the twin-shell tumbler and
stored in individual screw-cap brown bottles for use as desired. To prepare the liq-
uid diet for use, 178 grams of cottonseed oil6 and 750 milliliters of water are added
to each batch of mixed dry diet (1600 grams) to give a total volume of 2100 milli-
liters. The mixture is either stirred by hand or mixed in a Waring Blendor. This liq-
uid diet is stable for several hours at room temperature, but should be stored in the
refrigerator if not used soon after mixing. It should not be used after 24 hours in the
refrigerator since it is not stable.
Calories supplied per milliliter of solution can be calculated on the basis of 4 cal-
ories per gram of carbohydrate and protein, and 9 calories per gram of cottonseed
oil. When the solution is made up as suggested above, the liquid diet contains ap-
proximately 3.5 calories per milliliter. Forty to fifty milliliters of this solution with
one-third to one-half orange per day has maintained experimental monkeys in good
health and vigor for over 6 months. Experimental animals were maintained in a
range of 70-80% of their normal body weight for the behavioral studies. Normal
body weights of control animals receiving free-feeding on the diet averaged 7.5 kilo-
grams for monkeys and 450 grams for rats. Monkeys received 1.5 milliliters of liq-
uid diet, while rats received 0.25 milliliter of liquid diet for each reinforcement dur-
ing behavioral studies.
If desired, the components (1600 grams dry mix plus 400 grams oil mixed thor-
oughly together) may also be used as an enriched non-liquid diet.
SUMMARY
A liquid synthetic diet has been designed which is adequate for maintenance of
rats and monkeys under the conditions of food-restriction used in hunger-motiva-
tion studies in psychopharmacology.
"Wesson oil.