Reinforcing Properties of Escape From Frustration Aroused In Various Learning Situations

Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes research from various learning situations involving reward manipulations in which frustration is typically introduced to account for the results. These researches provides empirical support for the frustration interpretation by using an escape-from-frustration response to measure independently the relative amounts of frustration present. The experiments presented in these researches indicate that the subjects learn a new response to escape from frustration-arousing stimuli. They also demonstrate that rats learn a hurdle-jump response to escape stimuli paired with nonreward or a reduced reward previously paired with a large reward. This result is obtained under various conditions and learning situations, such as following alley acquisition or direct placements on a continuous reinforcement schedule with solid food or sucrose rewards, in combination with stimuli paired with shock or with an increase in delay of reward, and following alley acquisition on a partial or varied reinforcement schedule. These experiments also demonstrate that the amount of discrimination training influences escape behavior from both S+ and S–, and that the stimuli associated with the absence of an “observing response” are more aversive than the stimuli associated with the presence of an “observing response.”