Positive conditioned suppression: effects of CS duration

During a brief conditioned stimulus (15 or 30 sec) that terminated with the response-independent delivery of banana pellets, operant responding reinforced by other food pellets according to a variable-interval schedule of reinforcement was suppressed in the squirrel monkey. Conditioned stimuli of longer duration (1, 2, and 3 min) did not reliably affect the rate of operant performance. Brief conditioned stimuli generated homogeneous response patterns of nearly complete suppression. Increasing the CS duration did not enhance responding, as previously reported, but led to alternate bursting and pausing, which suggested a loss of control by the conditioned stimulus. The results suggest that the magnitude of "positive" or "negative" conditioned suppression reflects the strength of the classical conditioning process.