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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1973 Jan;19(1):101–111. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1973.19-101

Comparisons between variable-interval and fixed-interval schedules of electric shock delivery

Norman Hymowitz
PMCID: PMC1334056  PMID: 16811644

Abstract

Responding maintained in rats under a variable-interval 35-sec food schedule was suppressed more by 60-sec and 240-sec fixed-interval schedules of shock delivery than by 60-sec and 240-sec variable-interval schedules of shock delivery. When the delivery of shock was preceded by a 5-sec visual stimulus, little overall response suppression was found with either fixed-interval or variable-interval schedules. In a third experiment, the percentage of occasions on which a cue preceded each shock delivery was varied from 0% to 100%. For the fixed-interval shock condition, the most suppression occurred with the 0% treatment, the least with 100%, and an intermediate amount with the 50% treatment. For the variable-interval groups, the most suppression occurred in the 50% condition, the least in the 100% group, and an intermediate amount with 0%.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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