Multiple punishment schedule.
Concurrent schedules of punishment and fixed-ratio reinforcement were studied in six white Carneaux pigeons. Two stimuli were alternated on the translucent key which served as the response mechanism. The pigeons were exposed to continuous punishment in one stimulus and first response punishment in the other. It was found that continuous punishment suppressed the fixed-ratio performance more than did punishment of the first response. Typically, a ratio run of responses was completed in spite of the onset of continuous punishment. Responding was then reduced for the remainder of the continuous punishment stimulus, except for those times when responding was initiated near the end of the stimulus. The results indicate that a multiple schedule can be used to compare different schedules of punishment in the same organism.
D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004597:Electroshock; D011678:Punishment; D011930:Reaction Time