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SELECTIVE PUNISHMENT OF INTERRESPONSE TIMES
Author(s) -
Galbicka Gregory,
Branch Marc N.
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.1981.35-311
Subject(s) - punishment (psychology) , psychology , electric shock , shock (circulatory) , statistics , audiology , mathematics , social psychology , medicine , physics , quantum mechanics
Lever pressing by two squirrel monkeys was maintained under a variable‐interval 60‐second schedule of food presentation. When response‐dependent electric shock was made contingent on comparatively long interresponse times, response rate increased, and further increases were obtained when the minimum interresponse‐time requirement was decreased. When an equal proportion of responses produced shock without regard to interresponse time, rates decreased. Thus, shock contingent on long interresponse times selectively decreased the relative frequency of those interresponse times, and increased the relative frequency of shorter interresponse times, whereas shock delivered independent of interresponse times decreased the relative frequency of shorter interresponse times while increasing the frequency of longer ones. The results provide preliminary evidence that interresponse times may be differentiated by punishment, further supporting the notion that interresponse times may be considered functional units of behavior.