Negative reinforcement as shock-frequency reduction.

Is a conditioned aversive stimulus necessary in avoidance conditioning? Or is a reduction in the rate of aversive stimulation alone sufficient to generate and maintain an avoidance response? Rats were subjected to an avoidance procedure in which shocks occurred randomly in time, but a response could reduce the overall rate of shock. Fifteen acquisition curves, obtained from 16 animals, showed both immediate and delayed, rapid and gradual increases in response rate; there was no representative acquisition curve. Response rates were directly related to the amount by which the response reduced shock frequency. In extinction, when shock rates were not affected by responding, the response total was inversely related to the amount by which the response had reduced shock frequency during prior conditioning, with as many as 20,000 extinction responses when the shock frequency reduction had been relatively small. Responding on this procedure shows that avoidance conditioning can occur without benefit of either classical exteroceptive stimuli or covert stimuli inferred from the temporal constancies of a procedure. It also shows that reduction in shock rate is alone sufficient to maintain avoidance.

[1]  W. N. Schoenfeld,et al.  An experimental approach to anxiety, escape and avoidance behavior. , 1949, Proceedings of the annual meeting of the American Psychopathological Association.

[2]  J A DINSMOOR,et al.  Punishment. I. The avoidance hypothesis. , 1954, Psychological review.

[3]  Avoidant vs. unavoidant conditioning and partial reinforcement in Russian laboratories. , 1956, The American journal of psychology.

[4]  B. Campbell.  The reinforcement difference limen (RDL) function for shock reduction. , 1956, Journal of experimental psychology.

[5]  L. Kamin.  The effects of termination of the CS and avoidance of the US on avoidance learning. , 1956, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[6]  R. Solomon,et al.  Traumatic avoidance learning: Acquisition in normal dogs. , 1953 .

[7]  M. Sidman.  Two temporal parameters of the maintenance of avoidance behavior by the white rat. , 1953, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[8]  R. Herrnstein.  SECONDARY REINFORCEMENT AND RATE OF PRIMARY REINFORCEMENT. , 1964, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[9]  E. Culler,et al.  The Role of Incentive in Conditioning and Extinction , 1938 .

[10]  M. Sidman.  On the persistence of avoidance behavior. , 1955, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[11]  Murray Sidman.  Reduction of shock frequency as reinforcement for avoidance behavior. , 1962, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[12]  L. Kamin.  The effects of termination of the CS and avoidance of the US on avoidance learning: an extension. , 1957, Canadian journal of psychology.

[13]  R. Bolles,et al.  PARAMETERS AFFECTING THE ACQUISITION OF SIDMAN AVOIDANCE1 , 1964 .

[14]  R. Solomon,et al.  Traumatic avoidance learning: the outcomes of several extinction procedures with dogs. , 1953, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[15]  M. Sidman.  Avoidance conditioning with brief shock and no exteroceptive warning signal. , 1953, Science.

[16]  D. Anger.  The role of temporal discriminations in the reinforcement of Sidman avoidance behavior. , 1963, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[17]  N. Miller.  Studies of fear as an acquirable drive fear as motivation and fear-reduction as reinforcement in the learning of new responses. , 1948, Journal of experimental psychology.

[18]  D. Anger.  The dependence of interresponse times upon the relative reinforcement of different interresponse times. , 1956, Journal of experimental psychology.

[19]  Mowrer Oh,et al.  Fear as an intervening variable in avoidance conditioning. , 1946 .

[20]  H. Schlosberg.  Conditioned Responses in the White Rat , 1934 .

[21]  C. L. Hull.  A functional interpretation of the conditioned reflex. , 1929 .