Self-punitive behavior under conditions of massed practice.

Abstract
Previous studies of self-punitive or vicious-circle behavior have shown that locomotor responses, originally motivated by escape from shock, resist extinction longer when shock is retained through some intermediate portion of the sequence than when it is entirely eliminated. A similar phenomenon is observed even when all escape and "punished" extinction trials are administered in a single session with only 20 sec. between successive trials. The unique consequence of massing is production of an earlier -than-normal divergence of extinction curves of punished and non-punished groups.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: