Abstract.—Rats' lever pressing was reinforced with a sucrose solution. In the presence of a tone pressing one lever was reinforced on a FR 40 schedule, in the absence of the tone pressing another lever was reinforced on a FR 20 schedule. The components alternated every fourth minute. In both components, the duration of pauses in lever pressing after reinforcement was positively correlated with the duration of licking the empty sucrose‐delivery mechanism. In the FR 40 component, the duration of pauses was also positively correlated with the number of presses on the non‐reforced lever. Licking and non‐reinforced lever pressing were decreased when the rate of reinforced lever pressing was high. The response interactions were similar to those described for concurrent reinforcement sc