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Reversal of preference under progressive-ratio schedules by punishment
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|March 1, 1968
Summary
Punishing pigeons for resetting a progressive-ratio schedule increased their response requirements. This led to fewer reinforcements and overall responding, but behavior recovered when punishment ceased.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral psychology
- Animal behavior studies
Background:
- Progressive-ratio schedules are used to study response allocation under increasing effort.
- Reinforcement schedules are fundamental to understanding operant conditioning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of punishment on response allocation in a progressive-ratio schedule.
- To examine how punishment influences the use of a 'reset' option in a reinforcement task.
Main Methods:
- Pigeons were trained on a progressive-ratio schedule where responses increased incrementally for reinforcement.
- A second key allowed resetting the schedule, which pigeons initially used frequently.
- Punishment (electric shock) was applied to responses on the reset key.
Main Results:
- Punishment initially decreased responses on the reset key.
- Higher punishment intensities led pigeons to complete more steps of the progressive-ratio schedule before resetting.
- This resulted in decreased overall response rates and reinforcement rates.
Conclusions:
- Punishment effectively altered pigeons' strategy in the progressive-ratio schedule, shifting behavior towards completing higher response requirements.
- The findings demonstrate the power of contingent punishment in modifying operant behavior, even when it reduces overall reinforcement.
- Behavioral patterns largely reverted to pre-punishment levels upon removal of the punishment contingency, indicating the temporary nature of the imposed changes.