Abstract
5 adults were trained on a free-operant schedule in which key pressing maintained illumination of the experimental room and permitted reading. Superimposed on this baseline were concurrent schedules of timeout from monetary payment. Under the avoidance condition, each key-press response postponed timeout for a specified period of time. Under the punishment condition, a response produced timeout if separated from the preceding response by less than a specified period of time. Response rates increased with the avoidance schedule and decreased with the punishment schedule, thus indicating that timeout from one re-inforcer (monetary payment) can control behavior maintained by another reinforcer (room illumination).
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This research constituted the first author’s master’s thesis, conducted under the direction of the second two authors. Support was provided by NSF Grants GB 4004 and GB 8234 and by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Graduate School.
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Shipley, C.R., Baron, A. & Kaufman, A. Effects of Timeout from One Reinforcer on Human Behavior Maintained by Another Reinforcer. Psychol Rec 22, 201–210 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394080
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394080