Postdoctoral research fellow Julio performs a cocaine self-administration experiment on rats. During a presentation of his findings, Julio reports, "I have determined that rats will, on average, lever press around 200 times to receive a self-administered dose of cocaine." What has Julio measured?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Julio has measured the "break point," which is a term used in operant conditioning experiments to describe the maximum effort an animal (or human) will exert to obtain a reward, such as a dose of cocaine. This is a common measure in studies of drug self-administration to assess the reinforcing strength of the drug.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Julio Performs a Cocaine Self-Administration Experiment on Rats