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A RATE MEASURE OF THE RELATIVE AVERSIVENESS OF SIGNALLED VS UNSIGNALLED SHOCK 1
Author(s) -
MacDonald Larry,
Baron Alan
Publication year - 1973
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.1973.19-33
Subject(s) - shock (circulatory) , psychology , schedule , differential effects , audiology , social psychology , computer science , medicine , operating system
Five rats were trained on a two‐component multiple schedule with each component consisting of a two‐link chain schedule. Differential response suppression in the initial links of the chain schedules was used as a measure of the relative aversiveness of events introduced into the subsequent terminal links. When unsignalled shock was scheduled in one terminal link and signalled shock in the other (in addition to equal numbers of food reinforcers), responding was suppressed to a greater degree in the initial link preceding the unsignalled‐shock condition. Reversing the terminal‐link positions of unsignalled shock and signalled shock led to a reversal of the differential response suppression in the initial links. These results confirm previous findings that signalled shock is less aversive than unsignalled shock and extend the generality of this phenomenon from choice measures to rate measures of aversiveness.