Question

Susan trained her rat to press a bar in a skinner box in order to get a food pellet. susan's rat pressed the bar a lot. however, later when susan ran out of food pellets, her rat eventually stopped pressing the bar. what had happened?

Answer 1

The rat was taught that when you press the bar you receive food. When the food ran out the rat was still pressing the bar however it wasn't be awarded. The rat then saw that there was no outcome to pressing the button therefore found it to be pointless.