THE LAW OF EFFECT AND A VOIDANCE: A QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESPONSE RATE AND SHOCK‐FREQUENCY REDUCTION1
- 1 March 1974
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
- Vol. 21 (2) , 223-235
- https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.1974.21-223
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to investigate the quantitative relationship between response rate and reinforcement frequency in single and multiple variable-interval avoidance schedules. Responses cancelled delivery of shocks that were scheduled by variable-interval schedules. When shock-frequency reduction was taken as the measure of reinforcement, the relationship between response rate and reinforcement frequency on single variable-interval avoidance schedules was accurately described by Herrnstein's (1970) equation for responding on single variable-interval schedules of positive reinforcement. On multiple variable-interval avoidance schedules with brief components, asymptotic relative response rate matched relative shock-frequency reduction. The results suggest that many interactions between response rates and shock-frequency reduction in avoidance can be understood within the framework of the generalized matching relation, as applied by Herrnstein (1970) to positive reinforcement.Keywords
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