Facilitation of an N-R Pattern Discrimination by Shock on N Trials

Abstract

Two groups of rats ( N = 10) were trained in a runway on a single alternation partial reward schedule. One group received electric shock contingent on running on all nonrewarded trials. The remaining animals received identical shocks but during selected intertrial intervals and not contingent on the running response. Both groups learned a pattern discrimination but the contingent-shock animals learned earlier and performed better than the non-contingent-shock subjects. These data suggest that punishment can profitably be considered from the point of view of aftereffects theory.

Punishment of appetitively reinforced instrumental behavior: Factors affecting response persistence.

“…Persistence effects due to punishment have traditionally been interpreted via an extension (Wagner, 1966) of Amsel's (1962Amsel's ( , 1967 analysis of frustrative nonreward. However, several recent attempts have been made to extend Capaldi's (1967) sequential theory to account for the effects of punishment upon instrumental performance (Campbell, Crumbaugh, Marshall, & Sparling, 1972;Campbell, Crumbaugh, Massey, & Reed, 1972;Campbell, Wroten, & Cleveland, in press;Capaldi & Levy, 1972).…”