Conditioned suppression and variable ratio reinforcement

Conditioned suppression is a decrease in response rate during a relatively short duration stimulus that terminates independently of the animal's behavior and coincidentally with a brief unavoidable shock. The degree of conditioned suppression was measured for each of three birds on three variable ratio schedules; that is, the number of responses required for food reinforcement was varied around a mean of 50, 100, or 200. The results indicated a slight and possibly negligible decrease in the degree of suppression as the mean number of responses required on the schedule was increased from 50, to 100, and 200. In general, it was found that all of the variable ratio schedules tested were quite insensitive to the conditioned suppression procedure, although almost complete suppression was obtained on a few occasions. Since the reinforcement was contingent upon the emission of responses, the birds typically displayed a high rate of response during the pre-shock stimulus on all schedules. In addition, the rate during the pre-shock stimulus often changed abruptly independent of the presentation of a reinforcement. As a result of the high rate of response and the abrupt changes in rate, the degree of suppression from trial to trial was quite variable. A clear analysis of an experimental variable on this baseline is thus difficult.