Effects of Ratio Contingencies on Responding Maintained by Schedules of Electric‐shock Presentation (Response‐produced Shock)

Branch, Marc N.; Dworkin, Steven I.

doi:10.1901/jeab.1981.36-191

Cited by 11 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In contrast, there was no difference between the terminal IRT and the nine preceding IRTs during the VR or the RR schedule. Branch and Dworkin (1981) reported the only other study that incorporated a yoking procedure to investigate ratio performance under a schedule of response-produced shock. In that study, a squirrel monkey was trained to press a lever under an FI 5-min schedule of electric-shock presentation, and the number of responses per interval during 10 successive sessions under the Fl schedule was used to construct 10 sessions of VR contingencies.…”

Section: S-mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When one animal was exposed to an FR 30 schedule of response-produced shock for eight consecutive sessions, however, responding gradually decreased. Branch and Dworkin (1981) studied squirrel monkeys following a history of avoidance responding and reported a similar gradual decline in responding when an FI schedule of response-produced shock was replaced by a variable-ratio (VR) schedule, even though the number of responses per shock under the ratio schedule was yoked to values obtained during previous sessions under the interval schedule. Although these studies report limited success in maintaining responding under ratio contingencies, they do not reveal the basis for the ease in maintaining responding under interval contingencies and the difficulty typically experienced with ratio contingencies.…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…With few exceptions, however, reports have described only responding maintained by interval schedules of shock presentation. The result usually obtained when ratio schedules of shock presentation are studied is decreased responding or suppression, rather than maintenance, of responding (Branch & Dworkin, 1981;Kelleher & Morse, 1969;McKearney, 1972).…”

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confidence: 99%

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An Interresponse‐time Analysis of Responding Maintained by Schedules of Response‐produced Electric Shock

Howell

Byrd

Marr

1983

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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The present study investigated ratio contingencies to evaluate factors that may determine the maintenance of responding when electric shock is the consequent event. Initially, squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) were exposed to a continuous-avoidance schedule to initiate bar pressing. Subsequently, a multiple random-interval variable-ratio yoked schedule of response-produced shock was used to maintain and to compare interval and ratio performance. A microcomputer recorded and stored the number of responses and interresponse times occurring between successive shock presentations during a given random-interval component, and these numbers determined the ratio requirements during the subsequent ratio component. Responding was maintained for more than 80 sessions in two of three monkeys under the multiple schedule with the ratio yoked to the interval component. Responding during the ratio component persisted in only one monkey, however, when the components were no longer yoked. An analysis of the interresponse times immediately preceding shock under the multiple yoked schedule revealed that the terminal interresponse times were longer under the interval schedule than under the ratio contingency. The interresponse-time analysis indicated that differential interresponse-time relationships may be major determinants of the maintenance of behavior controlled by schedules of electricshock presentation.

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 92%

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An Interresponse‐time Analysis of Responding Maintained by Schedules of Response‐produced Electric Shock

Howell

Byrd

Marr

1983

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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“…Following response acquisition under responsecontingent schedules of food presentation (e.g., Kelleher & Morse, 1968), shock postponement (e.g., McKearney, 1969), or response induction by periodic response-independent shock (e.g., Morse, Mead, & Kelleher, 1967; see Hutchinson, 1977, for a review), lever pressing of squirrel monkeys can be maintained by shock presentation under interval schedules, which present shock following the first response after a specified temporal interval (see Morse & Kelleher, 1977, for a review). But when shock is delivered under ratio schedules, that is, following a specified number of responses, pressing typically is suppressed, even when the number of responses per shock is matched to a preceding condition in which responding was maintained under an interval schedule (Branch & Dworkin, 1981). Current conceptualizations of "shock-maintained behavior hold that the schedule of shock presentation is fundamental in determining the consequent stimulus function of shock (Morse & Kelleher, 1977) -presented under interval schedules, shock functions to reinforce responding; under ratio schedules, it serves to punish responding.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Branch and Dworkin (1981) reported repeated failures to reestablish responding under interval schedules of shock presentation once responding ceased. The response suppression predicted under Lag = 5 in the present study may be sufficient to generate similar problems of irreversibility.…”

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confidence: 99%

Interresponse‐time Punishment: A Basis for Shock‐maintained Behavior

Galbicka

Platt

1984

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Lever pressing of squirrel monkeys postponed brief electric shock according to a freeoperant shock-postponement procedure. Pressing also produced shock with a probability proportional to the duration of the current interresponse time in some conditions, or to the fifth ordinally-preceding interresponse time in others. These conditions provided equal frequencies and temporal distributions of response-produced shocks either contingent on or independent of the current interresponse-time duration, respectively. Shock delivered contingent on the current interresponse-time duration resulted in shorter mean interresponse times and higher overall response rates than shock delivered independent of the current interresponse time. In subsequent conditions, response-produced shocks were sufficient to maintain responding following suspension of the postponement procedure only when those shocks were contingent on the current interresponse time. Presenting shock independent of the current interresponse time, conversely, suppressed response rate and ultimately led to cessation of responding in the absence of a conjoint shock-postponement procedure. These results demonstrate interresponse-time punishment in the absence of any indirect avoidance contingencies based on overall shock-frequency reduction, and strongly support similar interpretation at the more local level of shock-frequency reduction correlated with particular interresponse times. Differential punishment of long interresponse times also provides both an a priori basis for predicting whether a schedule of shock presentation will maintain or suppress responding and a framework for interpreting many of the functional relations between overall response rate and parameters of consequent shock presentation. Finally, these results and others indicate the importance of response-consequence contiguity above and beyond any notion of noncontiguous contingency in the control of behavior.Key words: interresponse times, punishment, response-produced shock, avoidance theories of punishment, contiguity, contingency, lever press, squirrel monkeys [291][292][293][294][295][296][297][298][299][300][301][302][303][304][305][306][307][308]

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Reconciling differences in drug effects on behavior punished or maintained by response‐produced shock

Galbicka

1990

Drug Development Research

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Galbicka, G.: Reconciling differences in drug effects on behavior punished or maintained by response-produced Ishock. Drug Dev. Res. 20:89-99, 1990.Comparable patterns of behavior maintained by different events are affected similarly by certain drugs and differently by others. The present paper argues that patterns of behavior maintained by response-produced shock ("shock-maintained behavior"), although similar in appearance to lever pressing maintained by more conventional positive reinforcers, are generated through differential punishment of long interresponse times; hence, drug effects on this behavior should more closely resemble drug effects on pressing suppressed by punishment. Because the operants suppressed in these procedures are diametrically opposed (long interresportse times vs. pressing), the baseline patterns of behavior will differ (suppressing long interresponse times produces high rates of pressing, punishing pressing produces low rates). Furthermore, any drug-induced changes in the frequency of the punished operant will result in what appear to be dissimilar drug effects if the rate of only one operant class serves as the dependent variable. That is, drugs that increase the rate of pressing that has been suppressed by punishment should increase long interresponse times similarly suppressed. This results in an overall increase in pressing rate under typical punishment procedures, but a decrease in overall pressing rates (an increase in the rate of punished long interresponse times) under shock-maintenance procedures. Hence, similar drug effects on these inversely related operants should generate opposite changes in 90Galbicka pressing rate under the two sets of procedures. A review of the literature revealed this to hold true in 12 of 15 cases. Drug effects on comparable patterns of pressing maintained by shock or food presentation split more evenly. The literature indicates that, of 21 such comparisons between pressing maintained under fixed-interval schedules of food or shock, ten yielded comparable drug effects under both, and 11 yielded dissimilar effects. These results suggest that what appear to be dissimilar drug effects on pressing maintained or suppressed by shock may in fact be similar effects on the inversely related operants differentiated under these procedure.

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Effects of Ratio Contingencies on Responding Maintained by Schedules of Electric‐shock Presentation (Response‐produced Shock)

Cited by 11 publications

References 19 publications

An Interresponse‐time Analysis of Responding Maintained by Schedules of Response‐produced Electric Shock

An Interresponse‐time Analysis of Responding Maintained by Schedules of Response‐produced Electric Shock

Interresponse‐time Punishment: A Basis for Shock‐maintained Behavior

Reconciling differences in drug effects on behavior punished or maintained by response‐produced shock

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