ArticleLearning & behavior2026
What is possible and what is worth: Higher levers afford more work and enhance the value of leisure.
Article in Learning & behavior, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
This study investigated how variations in the physical properties of an operant manipulandum (i.e., lever height), affect behavior under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule. Lever height was analyzed from two complementary frameworks: the ecological theory of affordances and the economic theory of utility maximization, specifically through the Modular Maximization Theory. Rats were exposed to 60 progressive ratio (PR) sessions in which lever height varied daily pseudorandomly between 1, 11, and 18 cm. Results showed that breakpoints, response rates, and parameter estimates of response capacity (w) were significantly lower at 1 cm than at 11 and 18 cm, suggesting reduced motor affordance at floor level. The parameter z, indexing the value of the reinforcer relative to leisure, was higher at 1 cm, indicating a lower cost of effort at that position. Breakpoints indicated no carryover effects from prior sessions and stabilized rapidly from the first session of each condition, suggesting that adaptation to the affordances of the lever may be a distinct process from adaptation to reinforcement contingencies. These findings extend previous work on lever affordances and support the notion that operant performance is shaped by the interaction between environmental affordances and economic trade-offs. The integration of ecological and economic perspectives provides an account of how animals allocate behavior under varying physical and motivational constraints.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.