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PUNISHMENT OF AUTOSHAPED KEY‐PECK RESPONSES OF PIGEONS
Author(s) -
Wesp Richard K.,
Lattal Ken A.,
Poling Alan D.
Publication year - 1977
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.1977.27-407
Subject(s) - peck (imperial) , electric shock , shock (circulatory) , voltage , punishment (psychology) , shock response spectrum , psychology , developmental psychology , physics , mathematics , medicine , geometry , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics , acceleration
The effects of different voltages of response‐dependent and response‐independent electric shock on the frequency of key‐peck responses engendered by an autoshaping procedure were studied. In Experiments I and II, each response produced a brief electric shock, and response frequency generally decreased more with higher‐voltage shock. Preshock frequencies of responding were generally recovered across successive sessions of relatively low‐voltage shock delivery but not at higher shock voltages. The effects of response‐dependent and response‐independent shock were compared in Experiment III by using a yoked‐control procedure in which each pigeon received each type of shock delivery at different times. Response‐dependent shock generally produced greater decreases in response frequency. In the final experiment, one response‐independent shock per autoshaping trial was scheduled. The number of auto shaped responses per trial was related to shock voltages. These results suggest that response‐dependent and response‐independent electric shock effectively decrease frequency of autoshaped responses.