The effects of punishment upon syllable recognition thresholds.

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Abstract
A series of experiments was designed to test the effects of punishment, item discriminability, freedom of choice and extent of response pool on syllable recognition thresholds. In the face of impending punishment, thresholds for shock syllables were significantly higher than for nonshock syllables (a) when Ss responded from a closed set of possible responses with forced choices, and (b) when Ss responded from an open set with free choices. Under a no-punishment condition, when syllables were equated for recognizability and chance effects were minimized, there was some evidence to the effect that sensitization to previously shocked syllables occurs. Under conditions of ambiguous threat, essentially equal thresholds for shock and nonshock syllables resulted. Forcing choices generally resulted in lower over-all thresholds for both shock and nonshock syllables whereas increasing the extent of the response pool resulted in higher overall thresholds. The degree of discriminability of items with respect to their affective character had no significant effect on the syllable thresholds. The raised thresholds for shock syllables were interpreted as additional evidence favoring the response suppression hypothesis over that of perceptual defense. This process in combination with sensitization was offered as a possible alternative explanation of the subception phenomenon.
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