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CHOICE OF A TERMINATING OVER A NON‐TERMINATING SIGNAL IN FREE‐OPERANT AVOIDANCE
Author(s) -
Culbertson Stuart,
Badia Pietro
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.1973.20-235
Subject(s) - changeover , normalization property , schedule , signal (programming language) , lever , computer science , reinforcement , psychology , social psychology , telecommunications , engineering , mechanical engineering , transmission (telecommunications) , programming language , operating system
Rats chose between two signalled avoidance schedules. Under one schedule, responses in the presence of the signal terminated it and resulted in avoidance of shock; in the other, responses in the presence of the signal resulted in shock avoidance but signal termination was delayed for 10 sec. Pressing a second (changeover) lever produced change from one schedule to the other for 1 min. Once this 1‐min period timed out, subjects could remain under the schedule in effect or could reinstate the other schedule for another 1‐min period. All four subjects continuously changed over from the non‐terminating to the terminating signal schedule. Changeover responding was not maintained when the termination contingency was removed. When changeover responding resulted in a change from a terminating to a non‐terminating signal schedule, changeover responding did not occur.