AVERSIVE PROPERTIES OF THE NEGATIVE STIMULUS IN A SUCCESSIVE DISCRIMINATION1
- 1 November 1969
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
- Vol. 12 (6), 917-932
- https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.1969.12-917
Abstract
Experiment I sought to determine if the stimulus correlated with extinction in a successive discrimination was an aversive stimulus. An escape response provided an index of aversive control. Two groups of pigeons were exposed to a multiple variable-interval 30-sec extinction schedule. For the experimental group, a single peck on a second key produced a timeout during which all lights in the chamber were dark. For the control group, pecks on the second key had no contingency. The rate of responding on the timeout key during extinction for the experimental group was higher than that of the control group during all sessions of discrimination training except the first. In Exp. II, green was correlated with variable interval 30-sec and red was correlated with variable-interval 5-min. Timeouts were obtained from variable-interval 5-min. There were more timeouts from extinction in Exp. I than from variable-interval 5-min in Exp. II. Experiment III showed that not presenting the positive stimulus reduced the number of timeouts from the negative stimulus for the two birds from Exp. I that had the highest rate of timeouts from extinction, but had little effect on the two birds that had the lowest rate of timeouts. These results suggest that in a multiple schedule, the stimulus correlated with extinction, or the lower response rate, functions as a conditioned aversive stimulus. Explanations of the timeout response in terms of extinction produced variability, displaced aggression, and stimulus change, were considered but found inadequate.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Number of responses as a stimulus in fixed interval and fixed ratio schedules.Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1967
- TWO TYPES OF BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST IN DISCRIMINATION LEARNING1Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1966
- Is time-out from positive reinforcement an aversive event? A review of the experimental evidence.Psychological Bulletin, 1965
- Wavelength Generalization after Discrimination Learning with and without ErrorsScience, 1964
- Frustrative nonreward in partial reinforcement and discrimination learning: Some recent history and a theoretical extension.Psychological Review, 1962
- Time-out from Positive ReinforcementScience, 1961
- Generalization gradients around stimuli associated with different reinforcement schedules.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1959
- Response variability in the white rat during conditioning, extinction, and reconditioning.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1951
- The differential response in animals to stimuli varying within a single dimension.Psychological Review, 1937
- Anatomic-histological Description of the Birds' Singing LarynxActa Oto-Laryngologica, 1927