Escape and Avoidance Conditioning in Human Subjects without Their Observation of the Response

13 November 1959

journal article
research article
Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science

Vol. 130 (3385) , 1338-1339
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.130.3385.1338

Abstract

An invisibly small thumb-twitch increased in rate of occurrence when it served, via electromyographic amplification, to terminate or postpone aversive noise stimulation. Subjects remained ignorant of their behavior and its effect. Their cumulative response curves resembled those obtained in similar work with animals. Other subjects, informed of the effective response, could not produce it deliberately in a size small enough to qualify for reinforcement.

Keywords

LEARNING

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:

SECTION OF PSYCHOLOGY: THE ROLE OF PROPRIOCEPTION IN THE CONTROL OF BEHAVIOR*
Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1958
Avoidance Conditioning with Brief Shock and No Exteroceptive Warning Signal
Science, 1953