Abstract

The main goal of this study was to explore whether extinction of scheduleinduced adjunctive drinking (polydipsia) may become under contextual control. Drinking was induced by a Fixed-Time 30 sec food delivery schedule (FT30). Experiment 1 used a 2 x 2 factorial design with Schedule (FT30 vs. food at the start of the session), and Stimulus (Presence or absence of a 10 sec tone at the end of each 30 sec period within a session) as factors. Acquisition and extinction were conducted in two different contexts, returning to the acquisition context at testing. Experiment 2 tested contextual control of extinction against a control that remained in the extinction context at testing. Recovery from extinction was observed as an increase in water intake (as well as in magazine entries) during the test, regardless of the presence of the tone. Implications for the understanding of schedule-induced drinking as a conditioned response are discussed.