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REFRACTORY BEHAVIOUR IN SCHOOL AND AVOIDANCE LEARNING
Author(s) -
Davies John G. V.,
Maliphant Rodney
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1974.tb01201.x
Subject(s) - psychology , punishment (psychology) , developmental psychology , refractory (planetary science) , receipt , illusion , everyday life , task (project management) , audiology , cognitive psychology , medicine , physics , management , astrobiology , world wide web , computer science , political science , law , economics
SUMMARY Two experiments are reported to test the hypothesis that individuals who are considered persistently refractory by their teachers are generally inferior in the acquisition of avoidance behaviour. Brief electric shocks were administered for errors in a task in which adolescent subjects were required to over‐compensate for the effect of the Muller‐Lyer Illusion. In each experiment, refractory individuals received significantly more shocks. Receipt of this “punishment” is associated with reduction in their errors but the effects seemed relatively shortlived. This seemed analogous to their typical response to punishments or disciplinary procedures in everyday life. The implications of these tentative findings are briefly discussed.