FIXED‐RATIO PUNISHMENT WITH CONTINUOUS REINFORCEMENT

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Abstract
Rats were reinforced with water for every bar‐press and concurrently punished for every 10th or 20th bar‐press. Punishment produced an initial suppression of responding followed by recovery. A slight change in the method of delivering punishment eventually led to a high response rate just after punishment, a low response rate just before punishment, and frequent intermediate pauses. The results are interpreted as showing that punishment became a safe signal and that the high rate of responding it released came to act as a conditioned aversive stimulus. The effects of amphetamine were consistent with this interpretation. Alcohol had the paradoxical effect of increasing pauses and depressing the low rate before punishment.