The Psychological Record, 1979, 29, 523-546 AUTOSHAPING USING VISUAL STIMULI IN THE RAT JULIAN C. LESLIE, ROBERT A. BOAKES, JOSE LINAZA, and AND REW RIDGERS New University of Ulster, University of Sussex, and University of Oxford The effects of presenting abrief visual stimulus followed by response- independent delivery of food to rats were studied in four experiments. Both sign tracking, operation of a response key (Experiment 1) or alever (Experiments 2, 3, and 4), and goal tracking, operation of a food tray flap, were obtained. Lower rates of both types ofresponse occurred when the visual stimulus was unrelated to food delivery. Possible influences of similarity between the visual stimulus and events accompanying food delivery were investigated by varying the visual stimulus and tray light conditions. Such an influence was detected only in a control condition when the stimulus was uncorrelated with food delivery. Various omission contingencies produced marked reductions in the target behavior. A hungry rat will make contact with, and sometimes depress, alever inserted occasionally into an experimental chamber and followed regularly by the delivery of food, even though this reinforcement is independent of the animal 's behavior. In various respects results of such studies resemble those obtained in many experiments which have followed Brown and Jenkins' (1968) discovery of the autoshaping phenomenon and have em- ployed visual stimuli with pigeons as subjects. In the majority of those studies, as in the rat studies, the autoshaping procedure involves presen- tation of a stimulus for a fixed period of time (usually less than 10 sec) and delivery of a reinforcer immediately afterwards. In the first report of an experiment with rats explicitly concerned with autoshaping, Peterson, Ackil, Frommer, and Hearst (1972) showed that food-deprived rats contacted a retractable lever when its insertion was followed by food delivery more often than a second lever when its insertion was unrelated to food delivery. Thus the autoshaping procedure generated more lever-directed behavior than a concurrently scheduled random condition. In addition, they found that the form of the contact response was affected by the type of reinforcer when food and intracranial stimulation were compared. Using a similar procedure, Stiers and Silber- This research was conducted while the first and fourth authors were holders of UK Medical Research Council Research Studentships. Experiments I and 2 were included in a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Oxford by the first author. Reprints may be obtained from Julian Leslie, Psychology Department, The New University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, BT52 ISA. 0033-2933179/04523 + 024$00.1010 © 1979 The Psychological Record