An interpretation of inhibition of conditioned reflexes as competition between reaction systems.

Conditioned Suppression of Vestibular Nystagmus with Visual Stimuli.

“…Magnitude and frequency of vestibular stimulation (2,17), illumination levels and wavelength (11,12), the planes of rcation (3,18), and alcohol consumption (9,13) all have important influences. Dodge (10) and Wendt (22) postulated that some portion of vestibular habituation is due to the conditioning of opposing-response tendencies, and several more recent experiments support this theory (14)(15)(16)20). The present study deals with the possibility that habituation or conditioned suppression of inappropriate nystagmus may be revealed in the course of a fairly short conditioning sequence.…”

Observation of the behavior of rats running to reward and nonreward in an alleyway ...

“…36 (.46) .45 (.90) continuously rewarded subjects, were not a simple result of behavior "sequencing, " as described in Experiment I. n, U i tc . '*'.jj 109 (Pavlov, 1927) (Bindra, 1961;Estes, 1950Estes, , 1959Guthrie, 1959;Marx & Brownstein, 1963;McCoy & Marx, 1965;Miller & Miles, 1936;Stevenson, 1936;Wendt, 1936 Bruce (1935) found that, when food reward for hungry rats and water reward for thirsty rats were switched, "exploratory" behavior returned first in the latter parts of a maze before spreading quickly throughout. For both groups of ;.…”

“…(Hammer, 1971;Pereboom & Crawford, 1958) showed, almost certainly reflecting a "ceiling effect" (Bower, 1961 (Courtney, Reid, &;Wasden, 1968;Gagne, 1941;Kello, 1972; McNamara & Wike, 1958;Winnick & Hunt, 1951) and in other situations as well (Bindra, 1961;Bruce, 1935;Hoffman & Overman, 1971;Smith, 1971;Wendt, 1936 (Bruce, 1935 The goal gradient in overall run time was not an "artifact" of competing behavior (Marx & Brownstein, 1963 ,.…”

“…(Amsel, 1958;Estes, 1959;Guthrie, 1959;Kimble, 1961;Spence, I960;Wendt, 1936). Since S-R theorists accord no role to interfering responses during continuously rewarded acquisition, they generally account for the occurrence of these behaviors in extinction by assuming that they are elicited by nonreward (e.g., "emotional" or "frustration" behaviors, Amsel, 1958; see Kimble, 1961;Spence, I960).…”

The Human Value of Behavior Therapy

“…Reciprocal excitation and inhibition are found in every modality of nervous function and at all levels of neural integration. In the words of Wendt (1936): . .Anything an animal may be doing at the moment, be it sleeping, playing, groaning, vocalizing... is reciprocally related to anything else it would otherwise have been doing at the same m o m e n t...' We are unable to say, or even to think of a word without simultaneously inhibiting the formulation of all other words.…”