An experimental study of the influence of punishment for errors during learning upon retention.

The Temporal Dynamics Model of Emotional Memory Processing: A Synthesis on the Neurobiological Basis of Stress-Induced Amnesia, Flashbulb and Traumatic Memories, and the Yerkes-Dodson Law

“…With rare exceptions (Ni [41]; Young [42]; Postman [43]), the work of Yerkes and Dodson and the law it spawned were largely ignored in the first half of the twentieth century. Five decades passed from the formation of the Yerkes-Dodson law before it was first tested by Broadhurst [44] with modern techniques and statistical data analyses.…”

“…That is, if the right (high stress) side of the stress-performance curve always declines to produce poor performance, as it does in the Hebbian version of the Yerkes-Dodson law (Figure 2(a)), then strong emotionality should universally impair all forms of cognition. On the contrary, extensive research has shown that strong emotionality can, under some conditions, enhance memory (Ni [41]; Cahill et al [87]; McGaugh [88]; Sharot et al [89]; Nielson et al [90]). The well-described flashbulb memory phenomenon is just one example of how arousing experiences can strengthen memories.…”

Can we understand how developmental stress enhances performance under future threat with the Yerkes-Dodson law?

“…Since their seminal work over a century ago, Yerkes and Dodson's findings have been replicated in numerous taxa with modern techniques and statistical analyses [9][10][11] and widely applied to performance in many contexts including athletic training, 12 workplace conditions, [13][14] and video games. 15 The Yerkes-Dodson law states that for more challenging tasks, i) moderate arousal can enhance performance [16][17][18] in part by modulating motivation, 8 but ii) high levels of arousal can decrease performance [19][20] through processes such as a reduction in the amount of information that can be processed, as described in the Easterbrook hypothesis. [21][22] In Chaby et al 1 we tested rats in a moderately challenging, problem-solving foraging task that required varying motor actions and object manipulations under both high-threat conditions (auditory and visual predator cues, bright light) and low-threat conditions (standard laboratory conditions, dim red light).…”

Shock for right and wrong responses during learning and extinction in human subjects.

“…If such punishment has been consistently associated with given responses, then it might serve to maintain those responses in the absence of other specific agents which reinforced them during learning. Groups extinguished without shock, then, as under the conditions of the present study, might be expected to extinguish more readily than those extinguished with shock because there would be no inhibiting carry-over from the previous learning situation (5,9). Following this reasoning, and prior to running any Ss, it was predicted that in those conditions in which shock had accompanied learning in such a way that it could serve as a cue to correctness of response, or could acquire secondary reinforcing properties, extinction under the same shock conditions would require significantly greater numbers of trials than would be required where the response was extinguished without shock, or where shock continued to accompany both responses.…”

“…However, the behavior of responding with the previously learned series of choices was failing to occur. While this is perhaps not the usual definition of extinction in such studies as the present one, it has been used before (9), and seems to fit the requirements of the present study.…”