Data from: Causal reasoning in rats' behaviour systems

Conceiving of stimuli and responses as causes and effects, and assuming
that rats acquire representational models of causal relations from
Pavlovian procedures, previous work by Causal Model Theory proponents
attempted to train rat subjects to represent Light as a cause of both Tone
and food. By these assumptions, with formal help from Bayesian Networks,
self-production of the Tone should reduce expectation of alternative
causes, including Light, and their effects, including food. Reduced
feeder-directed responding to the Tone when self-produced has been taken
as evidence for a general causal reasoning capacity among rats involving
mental maps of causal relations. Critics have rejoined that response
competition can explain these effects. The present research replicates the
key effect, but uses continuous and finer-grained measurement of a broader
range of behaviours. Behaviours not recorded in previous studies
contradict both prior explanations. Even results cited in support of these
explanations, when measured in finer detail and continuously over longer
periods, show patterns not expected by either view, but supportive of a
specific-process approach with attention to motivational factors. Still,
the abstract prediction from Bayesian Networks holds, providing a
potentially complementary normative analysis. Behaviour systems theory
provides firmer framing for such theories than representational-map
alternatives.