Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm
09:00

Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm

Published on: October 3, 2020

Escape, avoidance, punishment: where do we stand?

J A Dinsmoor

    Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
    |July 1, 1977
    PubMed

    More Related Videos

    Drosophila Passive Avoidance Behavior as a New Paradigm to Study Associative Aversive Learning06:20

    Drosophila Passive Avoidance Behavior as a New Paradigm to Study Associative Aversive Learning

    Published on: October 15, 2021

    The Active Place Avoidance (APA) Test, an Effective, Versatile and Repeatable Spatial Learning Task for Mice06:03

    The Active Place Avoidance (APA) Test, an Effective, Versatile and Repeatable Spatial Learning Task for Mice

    Published on: February 16, 2024

    Related Concept Videos

    Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness01:14

    Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness

    Avoidance learning and learned helplessness are critical concepts in understanding behavioral responses to negative stimuli.
    Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
    Punishment01:27

    Punishment

    Negative reinforcement and punishment are often confused but serve distinct functions in behavior modification. Reinforcement, whether positive or negative, increases the likelihood of a desired behavior, while punishment decreases it.
    Punishment can be positive or negative. Positive punishment involves adding an undesirable stimulus, such as scolding, to decrease a behavior. Negative punishment involves removing a desirable stimulus, such as taking away a favorite toy, to decrease behavior.
    Timing and Consequences on Behavior01:08

    Timing and Consequences on Behavior

    In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective. 
    Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant factor...
    Behavior Modification01:21

    Behavior Modification

    Behavioral approaches have often been criticized for ignoring mental processes and focusing solely on observable behavior. However, these approaches provide an optimistic perspective for individuals seeking to change their behaviors. Rather than concentrating on intrinsic personality traits, behavioral approaches suggest that even longstanding habits can be modified by changing the reward contingencies that maintain them.
    A real-world application of operant conditioning principles is applied...
    Frustration and Conflict: Avoidance-Avoidance, Double-Approach Avoidance01:14

    Frustration and Conflict: Avoidance-Avoidance, Double-Approach Avoidance

    Avoidance-avoidance conflict refers to a psychological situation where a person must choose between two or more unpleasant alternatives. These conflicts are particularly stressful because neither option is desirable. This dilemma is often expressed in sayings like "caught between a rock and a hard place" or "between the devil and the deep blue sea." For instance, individuals who fear dental procedures may find themselves torn between enduring a painful toothache or facing the anxiety of...
    Censoring Survival Data01:09

    Censoring Survival Data

    Survival analysis is a statistical method used to analyze time-to-event data, often employed in fields such as medicine, engineering, and social sciences. One of the key challenges in survival analysis is dealing with incomplete data, a phenomenon known as "censoring." Censoring occurs when the event of interest (such as death, relapse, or system failure) has not occurred for some individuals by the end of the study period or is otherwise unobservable, and it might have many different reasons...