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SOME EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONED SUPPRESSION PARADIGM ON OPERANT DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE 1
Author(s) -
Weiss Kenneth M.
Publication year - 1968
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.1968.11-767
Subject(s) - reinforcement , stimulus (psychology) , classical conditioning , unavailability , psychology , operant conditioning , signalling , neuroscience , electric shock , shock (circulatory) , audiology , conditioning , chemistry , communication , social psychology , cognitive psychology , medicine , physics , biology , statistics , mathematics , microbiology and biotechnology , quantum mechanics
Three experiments were conducted with rats to determine the effects of electric shock on responding during an operant discrimination. In two of these experiments, a conditioned suppression procedure was superimposed upon a stimulus signalling the availability of food reinforcement (S D ). Response rates were greatly suppressed, not only in the warning signal periods which preceded each shock, but in the presence of S D , and the stimulus signalling the unavailability of reinforcement (S Δ ) as well. A third experiment, in which a very mild shock was used without a warning signal, demonstrated an increased response rate in S D and S Δ , although this effect was rather unsystematic. In a similar study, Hearst (1965) found an increased rate in S Δ independent of any change in the S D rate. The present study failed to obtain Hearst's effect but illustrated a suppressive effect with a similar procedure.