Sequence, number of nonrewards, anticipation, and intertrial interval in extinction.

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Abstract
Journal abstract Investigations which have attempted to determine whether resistance to extinction is regulated by number of nonrewarded trials or by sequence of nonrewarded trials have failed to isolate satisfactorily these variables. Here, five groups of 12 rats each were trained in a runway with these variables varied such that i1 could be determined whether number of nonrewards alone, or sequence of nonrewards alone, or both together regulated extinction. Results were that extinction was regulated by sequence of nonrewards alone. These data, collected under a 20-min. intertrial interval (ITI), were shown to be potentially relevant to effects of sequence of nonrewards at a 24-hr. ITI. In the condition where number of nonrewards varied and sequence of nonrewards was constant, rats did not discriminate between rewarded and nonrewarded trials. This meets a previous objection that sequence of nonrewards regulates extinction only under discrimination conditions. Results are shown to be consistent with a considerable body of schedule and percentage data and inconsistent with theories based upon hypotheses about number of nonrewards, such as the frustration, dissonance, and competing-response hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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