Adrenal and thymus weight loss in the food-deprived rat produced by random ratio punishment schedules.

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Abstract
After Initial regular reinforcement of a lever-pressing response with milk, 6 groups of food-deprived rats were exposed to a concurrent random ratio punishment procedure wherein each group continued to be rewarded but had a different probability of receiving a brief electric foot shock for each response. Response suppression increased with punishment probability, with marked drop in responding at the highest shock probabilities. After 22 hr. of exposure to these "conflict" schedules, autopsies revealed that adrenal and thymus weights had decreased under intermediate levels of punishment probability, and that no gastric ulceration occurred in any S. A 2nd experiment confirmed these findings and also traced the time course of these effects.

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