Abstract
In a free-operant situation, food reinforcement of panel-pushing decreased alternative responses, while extinction increased the complexity and variability of behavioral fields. In most subjects, extinction-induced sanddigging first increased and then returned to baseline. The present extinction data support a stage model of extinction (Wong, 1978).
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Wong, P. T. P. Extinction-induced facilitation and “learned helplessness.” Paper presented in a symposium on “Learned helplessness and frustration” in the XlXth International Congress of Applied Psychology, Munich, Germany, August 1978.
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This work was supported by National Research Council Grants 3A8635 and 3A0701. The author thanks P. Moore, N. White, and W. Grife for their assistance and A. F. Carr for helpful comments on an earlier draft. Requests for reprints should be addressed to P. T. P. Wong
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Wong, P.T.P. A behavioral field approach to operant conditioning: Extinction-induced sanddigging. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 12, 203–206 (1978). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329671
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329671