RESPONSE SUPPRESSION IN CER PARADIGM WITH EXTINCTION AS AVERSIVE EVENT

A pair of albino rats, responding on a VI 15-sec reinforcement schedule, were exposed in a yoked procedure to response-contingent and response-independent periods of extinction preceded by a 15-sec warning signal. Only response-contingent extinction produced a pronounced suppressive effect during the warning signal. When extinction was response-independent, some decrement occurred during the warning signal, but this effect was no greater than when the warning signal preceded a period of stimulus change unaccompanied by extinction, The results, interpreted as passive avoidance of the extinction period, support the contention that a period of extinction constitutes an aversive event for a deprived organism, although the pronounced conditioned emotional response usually produced by aversive electric shock was not evident in the present study. © 1969, Psychonomic Journals, Inc.. All rights reserved.