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EFFECTS OF FIXED‐TIME SHOCKS AND BRIEF STIMULI ON FOOD‐MAINTAINED BEHAVIOR OF RATS
Author(s) -
Keenan Michael,
Leslie Julian C.
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.1981.36-353
Subject(s) - reinforcement , stimulus (psychology) , stimulus control , tone (literature) , shock (circulatory) , audiology , psychology , lever , communication , neuroscience , cognitive psychology , social psychology , medicine , physics , art , literature , quantum mechanics , nicotine
When a fixed‐time schedule of shocks was presented to rats lever pressing for food on a random‐interval schedule, a pattern of behavior developed with a high rate of pressing after shock declining to near zero before the next shock was delivered. Once this pattern had stabilized, one‐quarter of the shocks were replaced with brief auditory stimuli (tones) in a random sequence. Tone maintained behavior similar to shock, although tone was never paired with shock. Both tone and shocks elicited responding when presented at various times as probe stimuli, and responding was usually totally suppressed if neither stimulus occurred at the beginning of the fixed‐time interval. When other stimuli were paired with tone and shock, only those paired with tone gained discriminative control and elicited responding. These findings suggest that stimuli that signal a shock‐free, or safe, period will maintain the pattern of behavior generated by shock on a fixed‐time schedule. There is a parallel between this phenomenon and the control of behavior on second‐order schedules of positive reinforcement with nonpaired brief stimuli.