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INTERMITTENT PUNISHMENT OF HUMAN RESPONDING MAINTAINED BY INTERMITTENT REINFORCEMENT 1
Author(s) -
Scobie Stanley R.,
Kaufman Arnold
Publication year - 1969
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.1969.12-137
Subject(s) - reinforcement , punishment (psychology) , shock (circulatory) , psychology , variable (mathematics) , interval (graph theory) , schedule , developmental psychology , audiology , social psychology , mathematics , computer science , medicine , mathematical analysis , combinatorics , operating system
To determine the effects of variable‐interval shock punishment on behavior maintained by variable‐interval and variable‐ratio reinforcement, human subjects' key‐pressing behavior was reinforced with money on a four‐component multiple schedule. Components 1 and 2 were variable‐interval 30‐sec, and Components 3 and 4 were variable‐ratio 210. After responding was stabilized, response‐contingent electric shock was scheduled on a variable‐interval 10‐sec schedule during the second and fourth components of each cycle. Subjects instructed as to the reinforcement contingencies showed gradually increasing suppression of variable‐interval responding at increasing shock intensities and either very high or very low rates of variable‐ratio responding at higher intensities. Minimally instructed subjects showed suppression at higher shock intensities, but no clear differential suppression as a function of reinforcement schedule. Recovery from initial suppression was observed within sessions.