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DISCONTINUITIES AND LUMPINESS IN RECORDS OF EXTINCTION 1
Author(s) -
Slater Patrick,
Yatkin A.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.157
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2044-8317
pISSN - 0007-1102
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8317.1965.tb00694.x
Subject(s) - classification of discontinuities , discontinuity (linguistics) , extinction (optical mineralogy) , event (particle physics) , mathematics , econometrics , statistical physics , statistics , materials science , physics , mineralogy , geology , astrophysics , mathematical analysis
Records containing 2,154 inter‐response intervals (latencies) were obtained from 40 rats undergoing experimental extinction of a habit of pressing a bar to obtain food. The latencies do not generally tend to increase exponentially during the course of an experimental record, or follow any other smooth, continuous process of change. Gross discontinuities and lumpiness can be demonstrated; and these are the features that distinguish the records most clearly from random sequences of time intervals. The final event, extinction itself, appears as a significant discontinuity in every case but one. It can evidently occur without being induced by any continuous process; and perhaps the explanation of its occurrence should be sought by examining more closely the phenomena of discontinuities and lumpiness which contemporary theories overlook, and attempting to control them experimentally.