Contiguous Withdrawal Conditioning: A Model for Punishment

Abstract

The study was intended to extend Denny's elicitation theory, which accounts for reinforcement effects through contiguously conditioned approach responses, to the treatment of punishment. This treatment would rest on a demonstration of contiguously conditioned withdrawal responses to stimuli which have been paired with the onset of an aversive stimulus. Two groups of 20 male rats were trained in random order in a standard Skinner box. Experimental Ss received 25 trials in which the onset of a 6-w light was paired with the onset of a 1-ma. shock. Controls received 25 presentations of the light and shock, but these were presented uncorrected with one another. Ss were tested individually in a modified T-maze. A 6-w light was presented in one of the T-arms, randomly selected. Of 20 experimental Ss 17 withdrew from the light but only 9 of 20 control Ss withdrew. The difference between proportions was significant ( p < .01). The findings are taken as allowing the extension of Denny's theory to account for punishment.