EFFECTS OF SHOCK INTENSITY AND DURATION ON FREQUENCY OF BITING ATTACK BY SQUIRREL MONKEYS

Squirrel monkeys were periodically exposed to brief tail‐shocks in the presence of a rubber tube connected to a pneumatic switch. Biting attack upon this tube was found to be a decreasing function of time since shock delivery and a direct function of shock intensity and duration. These results parallel findings in investigations employing more “naturalistic” social situations, indicating that attack against the inanimate and animate environment is a direct function of the intensity of an aversive stimulus. The results also demonstrate that frequency of biting attack as a datum is sensitive to several experimental manipulations. 1968 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior