Development of a conditioned positive reinforcer through removal of an aversive stimulus.
- 1 January 1965
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology
- Vol. 60 (2), 281-283
- https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022363
Abstract
To test the prediction that neutral stimuli paired with termination of shock will acquire positive reinforcing characteristics, 3 groups of 10 rats were trained to terminate shock and buzzer by bar pressing. For Group 1 only the response was followed immediately by a 3-sec. light. In a single-alley runway with buzzer present, entrance into the goal box terminated the buzzer for all groups and for Groups 1 and 2 turned on a 3-sec. light. Group 1 required significantly more runs to reach extinction. Groups 2 and 3 did not differ from each other. It is concluded that a positive secondary reinforcer may be established without initially serving as a discriminative stimulus.This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Acquisition of secondary reward by cues associated with shock reduction.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1954