Crosbie, J., Williams, A. M., Lattal, K. A., Anderson, M. M., & Brown, S. M. (1997).
Schedule interactions involving punishment with pigeons and humans.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
68, 161-175.
The principal aim of the present experiments was to assess
whether punishment increased or decreased the rate of unpunished
behavior (contrast and induction, respectively) for which
reinforcement rate was held constant, with physical and
nonphysical punishers (electric shock and response cost), pigeon
and human subjects, signaled and unsignaled components (multiple
and mixed schedules), and the presence or absence of a blackout
period between components. Across the three experiments there
were 20 punishment conditions. Induction was found in nine of
those, less consistent response-rate reduction was found in
three, contrast was found in four, and in four there was no
change in responding from conditions without punishment. Contrast
occurred consistently only with multiple schedules during the
first exposure to electric-shock punishment. Induction and no
change, however, were found with every combination of the
independent variables studied. Four conclusions regarding the
interactions between punished and unpunished responding emerged
from the present results: (a) Both contrast and induction
occurred with the reinforcement rate held constant and a blackout
between components, (b) induction was more common than contrast,
(c) contrast occurred only in the presence of a stimulus
different from that correlated with the punisher, and (d)
contrast diminished with prolonged exposure to punishment. None
of the current theoretical accounts of punishment contrast can
explain the present results.
Key words: punishment, electric shock, response cost, key peck,
lever press, pigeons, humans