Abstract
Two experiments extended the investigation of temporally defined avoidance schedules to human Ss responding on a schedule of point-loss avoidance. Experiment I found that superimposition of a td-correlated added stimulus had no effect on response rate or distribution, while response-cost contingency of 1 point per response produced a decrease in response rate and an increase in failures to avoid 10-point losses. Discriminated responding was produced only by combination of the added stimulus and the response-cost contingency. Experiment II found that a high-effort response mani-pulandum was functionally equivalent to the response-cost contingency in behavioral effects. The results are consistent with Weiner’s explanation for apparent insensitivity of human responding to nonresponse contingency events and support the generic use of the term “cost” in exchange theories.
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Preparation of this manuscript was partially supported by USPHS Research Grant MH-25062-01. The assistance of Irene Van Sant is gratefully acknowledged.
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Matthews, B.A., Shimoff, E. Human Responding on a Temporally Defined Schedule of Point-Loss Avoidance. Psychol Rec 24, 209–219 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394236
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394236