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STIMULI INEVITABLY GENERATED BY BEHAVIOR THAT AVOIDS ELECTRIC SHOCK ARE INHERENTLY REINFORCING
Author(s) -
Dinsmoor James A.
Publication year - 2001
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.2001.75-311
Subject(s) - reinforcement , shock (circulatory) , psychology , operant conditioning , social psychology , medicine
A molecular analysis based on the termination of stimuli that are positively correlated with shock and the production of stimuli that are negatively correlated with shock provides a parsimonious account for both traditional discrete‐trial avoidance behavior and the data derived from more recent free‐operant procedures. The necessary stimuli are provided by the intrinsic feedback generated by the subject's behavior, in addition to those presented by the experimenter. Moreover, all data compatible with the molar principle of shock‐frequency reduction as reinforcement are also compatible with a delay‐of‐shock gradient, but some data compatible with the delay gradient are not compatible with frequency reduction. The delay gradient corresponds to functions relating magnitude of behavioral effect to the time between conditional and unconditional stimuli, the time between conditioned and primary reinforcers, and the time between responses and positive reinforcers.