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EXPERIMENTAL SELF‐PUNISHMENT AND SUPERSTITIOUS ESCAPE BEHAVIOR
Author(s) -
Migler Bernard
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1963.6-371
Subject(s) - punishment (psychology) , shock (circulatory) , escape response , avoidance learning , bar (unit) , psychology , reinforcement , social psychology , medicine , neuroscience , physics , meteorology
Rats were trained to escape from shock by pressing a bar. Bar holding was subsequently punished with very brief shocks. This treatment failed to depress bar‐holding behavior. In some cases, although the escape shocks were delivered very infrequently, bar holding was maintained and resulted in the delivery of several thousand punishments per session. These and other effects of the punishment treatment were investigated. Finally, some of the possibilities of superstitious escape responding were explored by presenting inescapable shocks to rats that had been trained to escape shock by lever pressing. Although responding during these shocks had no programmed consequences, responding was sustained.