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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1963 Jul;6(3):407–412. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1963.6-407

Elimination of behavior of mental patients by response-produced extinction1

W C Holz, N H Azrin, T Ayllon
PMCID: PMC1404454  PMID: 13961498

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.

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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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