FIXED-RATIO PUNISHMENT WITH CONTINUOUS REINFORCEMENT.
Rats were reinforced with water for every bar-press and concurrently punished for every 10th or 20th bar-press. Punishment produced an initial suppression of responding followed by recovery. A slight change in the method of delivering punishment eventually led to a high response rate just after punishment, a low response rate just before punishment, and frequent intermediate pauses. The results are interpreted as showing that punishment became a safe signal and that the high rate of responding it released came to act as a conditioned aversive stimulus. The effects of amphetamine were consistent with this interpretation. Alcohol had the paradoxical effect of increasing pauses and depressing the low rate before punishment.
D000661:Amphetamine; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004560:Electricity; D000431:Ethanol; D011600:Psychopharmacology; D011678:Punishment; D051381:Rats; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012106:Research
D000431:Ethanol; D000661:Amphetamine
ALCOHOL, ETHYL; AMPHETAMINE; ELECTRIC STIMULATION; ELECTRICITY; EXPERIMENTAL LAB STUDY; PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY; PUNISHMENT; RATS; REINFORCEMENT (PSYCHOLOGY)