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FRACTIONAL PUNISHMENT OF FIXED‐RATIO PERFORMANCE 1
Author(s) -
Dardano J. F.
Publication year - 1970
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.1970.14-185
Subject(s) - reinforcement , punishment (psychology) , psychology , sex ratio , stimulus (psychology) , facilitation , statistics , mathematics , social psychology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , demography , population , sociology
Key‐peck responses of pigeons under a fixed‐rate 60 (Exp. I) or fixed‐ratio 99 (Exp. II) schedule of positive reinforcement were punished by response‐dependent electric shock during a segment of the ratio. The punishing stimulus was scheduled in one of three locations: the first third of the ratio, the middle third, or the final third. At high shock levels, the different loci of punishment differentially affected the typical fixed‐ratio performance pattern. Post‐reinforcement pauses were lengthened by all punishment conditions but to a greater degree when the responses in initial third of the ratio were punished. Disruption of responses before the punished segment of the ratio was a conspicuous feature of the performances when the middle or final third of the ratio was punished. Two of the punishment conditions produced similar effects on both fixed‐ratio baselines but punishing the final third of the ratio suppressed the punished responses of the ratio only with the fixed‐ratio 99 schedule. General effects of all punishment conditions included consistent intrasession recoveries of partially suppressed performances, the rapid recovery of the FR performances after the punishment dependency was removed after complete suppression, and the facilitation of overall and/or local response rates of most subjects by low‐intensity shock.