College Ss were given 75 lever-press escape trials with omission of entertaining material constituting the aversive stimulus. Reinstatement of the recording occurred either 0, 3, 6, or 9 sec. after the escape response. One-half of Ss in each delay group received 15 inescapable trials immediately prior to the escape trials. The results indicated that response latencies for the escape trials were directly related to the delay interval employed. Inescapable pretraining did not differentially affect performance.
70 college Ss acquired an avoidance response with omission of recording constituting the aversive stimulus. 60 Ss received a punished extinction procedure in which omission of recording occurred either 0, 3, or 6 sec. after a response. Duration of recording omission in each delay group was either 5 or 15 sec. Ten Ss received a normal CS-only extinction procedure. Results indicated that resistance to extinction was directly related to the delay intervals. Duration did not differentially affect performance during extinction. Greatest resistance to extinction occurred in the CS-only group.
Sixty college Ss were given 40 leverpress avoidance trials, with omission of entertaining material or a 98-dB or a 120-dB tone serving as the aversive stimulus. Within each aversive stimulus group, one-half of the Ss received a 2-sec warning signal; for the remaining Ss the signal duration was 6 sec. Response latency was the only measure that reflected differences in avoidance performance for the variables investigated. A functional equivalence for the two types of aversive stimulus events was supported. *This article is based on a thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Southern Mississippi by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree. Reprint requests should be sent to the second author,
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