Abstract
Mental hospital patients were conditioned to respond at a high rate. Then an attempt was made to eliminate the response by means of a mild punishment consisting of a period of timeout from reinforcement (response-produced extinction). When only one response was available for obtaining the reinforcement, the mild punishment was not effective in eliminating that response. When an alternative response was also made available for obtaining the reinforcement, the mild punishment was completely effective. It appears that even very mild punishment may be effective if the over-all frequency of reinforcement can be maintained by means of an alternative unpunished response.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- AZRIN N. H. Sequential effects of punishment. Science. 1960 Feb 26;131(3400):605–606. doi: 10.1126/science.131.3400.605. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- HUTCHINSON R. R., AZRIN N. H. Conditioning of mental-hospital patients to fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement. J Exp Anal Behav. 1961 Apr;4:87–95. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1961.4-87. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- REYNOLDS G. S. Behavioral contrast. J Exp Anal Behav. 1961 Jan;4:57–71. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1961.4-57. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]