Resistance to punishment and extinction following training with shock or nonreinforcement.

Abstract

ROBERT T. BROWN AND ALLAN R . WAGNERYale University3 groups of 30 rats were trained in a simple runway. During acquisitionGroup N was exposed to nonreinforcement on a 50% reward schedule,Group P was exposed to gradually increasing punishment along withconsistent food reward, while Group C was never punished or non-reinforced. Half of each group was then tested for the decrementaleffects of either consistent nonreinforcement or consistent strong punish-ment. Group P and N Ss were more resistant than Group C Ss notonly to the decremental variable with which they had been trained,i.e., punishment or nonreinforcement, respectively, but also to the alter-nate test variable. The results were interpreted in support of a com-monality between the emotional consequences of punishment and non-reinforcement.