The effectiveness of food and electric shock in learning and retention by rats when applied at critical points in the maze.

The history and present status of the law of effect.

“…Punishment has been found to affect different measures of learning. In many studies, in which responses are scored as either right or wrong, punishment has led to a decrease in the number of errors (10,13,24,25,26,27,36,41,54,55,56,57,79,80,87,111,116,137,138,172,173,193,196,199,200,201,202,204,206,218,301,302,307,326). When speed of learning is measured in terms of the number of trials required to reach criterion, we find that punishment often results in a smaller number of trials (19,24,25,26,27,36,41,54,55,111,137,155,171,193,…”

“…1. A large number of different organisms have been spurred on to better learning by punishment: 10 earthworms (325), cockroaches (261,300), dancing mice (324), rats (e.g., 20,54,56,57,111,116,155,193,106,199,200,201,202,204,206,301,307,322), chicks (36), cats (53), and, last but not least, human beings (10,12,13,19,24,25,26,27,41,55,79,80,87,137,138,172,173,217,218,302).…”

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

“…The results show that punishment led to the quickest learning. Dorcus and Gray (1932), in their study in the effectiveness of food and electric shock in learning and retention by rats when applied at critical points in the maze, reported that in both learning and relearning, the shock group made fewer errors and retained the maze-pattern better than did the food group. But if the recall scores in terms of the number of errors made by each group on the first trial in relearning were used to measure the degree of retention, there was no difference between the food and the shock groups.…”

“…Sixth, very few investigations have touched upon our problem. They are Dodson's (1917), Moss's (1924), Valentine's (1930, Bunch and McTeer's (1932), and Dorcus and Gray's (1932). Seventh, each of these investigators is interested in something else rather than in our problem.…”

Trial and error learning with differential cues.

“…. It is more important to punish wrong responses than to reward right responses (7,15,41). Informative emphasis on incorrect responses (negative guidance) is an aid to learning (5,12,13).…”