"Abnormal fixation" and learning.

Studies of Abnormal Behavior in the Rat: XXIV. Position Habits, Position Stereotypes, and Abortive Behavior

“…Wilcoxon's study (9) from another laboratory permits a comparison of the number of fixations that are obtained in a partial repeat of our experiments in his laboratory. His…”

“…Wilcoxon has contended that the abortive behavior obtained might be assigned a causative r6le in the development of fixations (9). H e feels that the abortive responses are adaptive solutions ".…”

The varied effects of punishment on behavior.

“…Avoidance responses may be more resistant to extinction than positive instrumental responses (Lichtenstein, 1957). The abortive responses of the experimental subjects may retard later learning (Wilcoxon, 1952) and, finally, partially reinforced responses may be more resistant to extinction than 100% reinforced responses (Wilcoxon, 1952). Maier and Ellen (1951) and Maier (1956) have argued effectively that the alternative explanations have not been demonstrated as necessary for the observed effects and that they are insufficient to account for some of the observations that have been made.…”

Frustration theory: Restatement and extension.

“…Maier and Ellen previously pointed out that Farber's data (7) contained a bimodal distribution, and Farber has attempted to explain his exceptional cases by genetic strain differences and the probability of skewed distributions (7,8). Whether or not the bimodal distributions in other sets of data (25,27,28,31,32,37) can be reduced to artifacts of a similar nature remains a problem.…”