CHARACTERISTICS OF AVERSIVE THRESHOLDS MEASURED BY A TITRATION SCHEDULE

Three variables were studied for their single and joint effects on aversive thresholds obtained by a titration schedule with electric shock as the aversive stimulus. One variable was the interval between the periodic increments in shock amplitude. Another was the size of this increment. The third was the size of the decrement produced when the subject responded. Both monkeys and humans tolerated more shock at the shorter increment-to-increment intervals than at the longer ones, confirming rat data previously obtained. Reducing the decremental step size also led to an increase in the amount of shock tolerated by monkeys. In addition, simply reducing both incremental and decremental step size without changing the interval between increments led monkeys to tolerate more shock. The attempt to explain these data was based on the changes that such manipulations might produce in the amount of avoidance behavior elicited.