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PREFERENCE FOR SIGNALED OVER UNSIGNALED SHOCK SCHEDULES: RULING OUT ASYMMETRY AND RESPONSE FIXATION AS FACTORS
Author(s) -
Abbott Bruce B.,
Badia Pietro
Publication year - 1984
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.1984.41-45
Subject(s) - changeover , psychology , shock (circulatory) , lever , social psychology , audiology , computer science , physics , medicine , telecommunications , quantum mechanics , transmission (telecommunications)
Experiment 1 tested whether a “symmetrical” choice procedure yields results different from those previously reported using the “unidirectional” standard changeover procedure (e.g., Badia & Culbertson, 1972). Subjects could change at any time from unsignaled to signaled shock by pressing a lever and from signaled to unsignaled shock by pressing a second lever. Results were identical to those of the standard procedure and showed that the standard procedure is fully adequate. Experiment 2 tested whether choice of high density signaled shock over low‐density unsignaled shock (Badia, Coker, & Harsh, 1973) resulted from initial training with equal‐density schedules. Subjects were trained and tested with signaled shock twice as dense as unsignaled shock. Three of four subjects strongly preferred the signaled condition, thus ruling out carry‐over and “response fixation” as alternative explanations.