Arnold Kaufman

Ineffectiveness of “time out” punishment in suppressing human operant behavior

Human Ss procured monetary reinforcement on a fixed-ratio schedule. In one component of the schedule, rather than procuring reinforcement responding produced either 0, 1, or 4 min of time out from reinforcement. Response-contingent time outs of these durations did not reduce rates below levels in other components of the schedule. The failure of time out punishment to produce response suppression was attributed to the fact that reductions in rate would have been accompanied by reductions in reinforcement frequencies as well.

Use of Withdrawal of Reinforcement within the Escape-Avoidance Paradigm

With rats as Ss, an analog of shock escape-avoidance was developed in which withdrawal of positive reinforcement served in lieu of noxious stimulation. Efficient escape behavior developed with latencies varying as a function of the rate of reinforcement reinstated by the conditioned response, but avoidance behavior was infrequent. The results were considered from the standpoint of whether the escape response was positively reinforced through onset of the period of reinforcement or negatively reinforced through termination of the period of non-reinforcement.

Effects of Timeout from One Reinforcer on Human Behavior Maintained by Another Reinforcer

Abstract5 adults were trained on a free-operant schedule in which key pressing maintained illumination of the experimental room and permitted reading. Superimposed on this baseline were concurrent schedules of timeout from monetary payment. Under the avoidance condition, each key-press response postponed timeout for a specified period of time. Under the punishment condition, a response produced timeout if separated from the preceding response by less than a specified period of time. Response rates increased with the avoidance schedule and decreased with the punishment schedule, thus indicating that timeout from one re-inforcer (monetary payment) can control behavior maintained by another reinforcer (room illumination).

Effects of signaled time-out from and loss of monetary reinforcement on human operant behavior

A signal followed by a period of time-out from reinforcement was presented while human Ss were responding to procure monetary reinforcement on a variable-interval schedule. The results replicated previous findings with animals of response facilitation in the presence of the signal. Facilitation also was observed when the signal preceded a brief stimulus indicating that money had been lost. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that response facilitation reflects conditioning of frustration to the signal. But it also was observed that in the majority of cases increased responding resulted in increased rates of reinforcement, thus suggesting that increased reinforcement may have been a factor in producing rate increases.

Temporal variables in the acquisition of human free-operant avoidance of “time out”

Human Ss acquired a response on a free-operant avoidance schedule in which “time out” (TO) from monetary reinforcement was the aversive event and various R-TO and TO-TO interval durations were employed. Acquisition was more rapid in groups where the R-TO interval was longer than the TO-TO interval than in groups where the R-TO interval either equalled or was shorter than the TO-TO interval. Differences within these broad groupings were unsystematic. After acquisition, rates of response varied as a function of the R-TO interval.

Effects of Punishment Intensity on Human Operant Behavior

In an attempt to develop techniques which might lead to quantitative measures of human conflict behavior, female college students were placed in a free operant situation where responding was concurrently reinforced (with money represented by counter tally) and punished (with electric shock) with increasing severity for successive responses. Ss were able to reset the shock to a low level by making a second response, which resulted in subtraction of counter tallies. Results indicate that as shock intensity increases, total responding decreases, and the average number of responses before reset also decreases. Variations in the magnitude of positive reinforcement failed to have any effects. Several factors which might have been involved were discussed. Suggestions were made for clarifying the role that duration of exposure to shock plays in the situation.

Chained behavior as a function of prior exposure to presence and absence of a reinforcing event

Rats were trained on a two-component chained schedule in which responding to S1 produced S2 in whose presence a dipper delivered milk. Prior to such training, Ss were pre-exposed to periods of dipper operation and non-operation either correlated or uncorrelated with S2 and S1. Acquisition of the chained response was fastest following preexposure to the stimuli paired with dipper operation and non-operation. This result was attributed to mediation by classically conditioned responses since operant behavior observed during preexposure was not a factor.