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EFFECTS OF A PRE‐SHOCK STIMULUS ON TEMPORAL CONTROL OF BEHAVIOR 1
Author(s) -
Blackman Derek
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.1970.14-313
Subject(s) - stimulus (psychology) , reinforcement , lever , stimulus control , psychology , shock (circulatory) , audiology , developmental psychology , neuroscience , social psychology , medicine , physics , cognitive psychology , quantum mechanics , nicotine
Rats were exposed to a situation in which a response on lever B was followed by reinforcement if a preceding response on lever A had been made at least 5, 10, or 15 sec before. The effects of signalled unavoidable shock were studied on the behavior maintained by this procedure. All rats made fewer A‐to‐B sequences during the periods of pre‐shock stimulus. In addition, when the A‐to‐B delay was 10 or 15 sec, the distribution of A‐to‐B times changed, there being more shorter intervals. However, for animals where the A‐to‐B delay was 5 sec, the distribution of A‐to‐B times was not changed during the pre‐shock stimulus. In all cases, there was an increased proportion of inappropriate B responses ( i.e. , with no preceding A response) during the pre‐shock stimulus; this was most marked with animals exposed to a 15‐sec A‐to‐B delay.