Abstract
Two pigeons keypecked on a multiple schedule of discriminated punishment. A white line on a green surround was associated with variable interval reinforcement and electric shock following each response, and the green surround alone was associated only with variable-interval reinforcement. When the white line was on, the key responding was suppressed. Probe presentations of the white line alone and the punishment contingency alone, and sessions under a mixed schedule of punishment without the white line, showed that response dependent shock controlled responding to a much greater degree than its putative discriminative stimulus. The results are seen as an instance of overshadowing of a correlation between a stimulus and shock by a more immediate and reliable correlation between a response and shock.
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This research was supported by grants from the National Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation. This manuscript was prepared while the author was a Visiting Professor at the University of Sussex, England, supported by a Canada Council Leave Fellowship.
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Weisman, R.G. Stimulus control by response-dependent shock in discriminated punishment. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 5, 427–428 (1975). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333289
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333289