ELIMINATION OF BEHAVIOR OF MENTAL PATIENTS BY RESPONSE‐PRODUCED EXTINCTION¹

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 time‐out 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.

EXTINCTION‐INDUCED AGGRESSION1

“…The most direct evidence of the aversive properties of extinction has emerged from studies (e.g. Ferster, 1958;Ferster and Appel, 1961;Baer, 1962;Holz, Azrin, and Ayllon, 1963;Zimmerman and Ferster, 1963) that have used an extinction period as a punisher for responses. Based on this evidence, the present study attempted to determine whether the aversive properties of extinction of food reinforcement could produce attack.…”

PUNISHMENT BY NOISE IN AN ALTERNATIVE RESPONSE SITUATION1

“…Recently, Holz, Azrin, and Ayllon (1963) found that punishment could be made more effective in suppressing a punished response by making available an alternative, unpunished response. Two response manipulanda were used with human subjects.…”

Human preference for nonconflict vs conflict situations

“…to that found by Hearst & Sidman (1961), who reported, for some Ss, preference for a neutral situation to one in which food was presented on a variable-interval schedule and shock was presented on a fixed-ratio schedule. Holz, Azrin, & Ayllon (1963) also found that Ss preferred a 396 nonconflict to a conflict situation. When responding was followed by cigarettes on one manipulandum and by.…”