RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF REINFORCEMENT AND RATE OF PUNISHED BEHAVIOR1

Abstract

After training on a multiple variable-interval variable-interval schedule of reinforcement, each response in one component of the schedule was followed by a brief electric shock. When the rate of punished responses stabilized, the frequency of reinforcement in the other component was first decreased and then increased from the baseline frequency. The effects of these manipulations were consistent with reports of interactions in multiple schedules involving only unpunished behavior, i.e., the rate of punished responses increased with a higher relative frequency of reinforcement in the punishment component and decreased with a lower relative frequency of reinforcement in that component. The relevance of such findings to a further generality of behavioral contrast effects is discussed.