Abstract
Following 72 reinforced placements in a box, rats received 30 additional nonreinforced placements during which time a bar was initially available. Under one condition a barpress response resulted in the rat’s being immediately removed from the box. Under the other condition, a barpress resulted in removal of the bar from the box while the rat remained in the box for a fixed period of time. Barpress speeds of both groups, but especially of the latter, improved with trials, whereas the slower speeds of control subjects, which received nonreinforced placements prior to barpress testing, showed no evidence of learning. The results were interpreted as supporting a prediction from elicitation theory that frustration can mediate learning through consistent elicitation of a response that is characteristic of frustration conditions, even when reinforcement in the form of frustration reduction is absent.
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Parts of this research were carried out while the second author was a visiting professor at Northern Illinois University.
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Senkowski, P.C., Denny, M.R. Frustration-mediated learning of a barpress response. Animal Learning & Behavior 5, 373–376 (1977). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209582
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209582