Premium
EFFECTS OF SIGNALED AND UNSIGNALED SHOCK ON SCHEDULE‐CONTROLLED LEVER PRESSING AND SCHEDULE‐INDUCED LICKING: SHOCK INTENSITY AND BODY WEIGHT
Author(s) -
Hymowitz Norman
Publication year - 1981
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.1981.35-197
Subject(s) - licking , shock (circulatory) , stimulus (psychology) , food delivery , lever , psychology , audiology , medicine , physics , endocrinology , cognitive psychology , advertising , quantum mechanics , business
Schedule‐controlled lever pressing and schedule‐induced licking were studied in rats under a multiple fixed‐interval fixed‐interval schedule of food reinforcement. Following acquisition of stable rates of pressing and licking, a multiple variable‐time variable‐time schedule of electric‐shock delivery was superimposed upon the baseline schedule. In only one component of the multiple schedule, a 5‐sec stimulus preceded each shock (signaled shock). In the other component shock was unsignaled. Several shock intensities (Experiment 1) and body weights (Experiment 2) were studied. Lever pressing and licking were affected similarly by experimental manipulations, although with parametric differences. Depending upon shock intensity and body weight, rates of lever pressing and licking were hardly suppressed, suppressed primarily in the unsignaled shock component (differential suppression), or markedly suppressed in both components. Differential suppression during components with signaled and unsignaled shock and conditioned suppression of responding during the pre‐shock stimulus appeared not to be functionally related. Differential suppression depended more on the discriminability of shock‐free time, and on shock intensity, body weight, and the type of response than on the “preparatory” behavior preceding shock.