Shock-right facilitation: Correction training with differential SD availability during an enforced delay following an error.

Abstract

To investigate delay-of-reinforcement factors controlling error tendencies in retrace-correction training, shock-right and no-shock rats were subjected following an error to different choice-point delays during which the visual S D was either present or absent. Longer choice-point delays progressively reduced both errors and trials to criterion, as well as the magnitude of the shock-right facilitation effect. Presence or absence of the S D was found to interact with length of the delay interval: at a 7.5-sec. delay, the performance of 5s for which the S D was present was facilitated over that of 5s for which it was absent, whereas the reverse held true at a 15-sec. delay. The results were interpreted as delineating the role of both primary and secondary reinforcement in controlling the rate of error reduction in correction training and, relatedly, in providing a basis by which shock-right training can facilitate performance in an easy discrimination task.

Effects of pre- and postresponse shock on discrimination performance using a discrete-trials procedure.

“…Taken together, these findings indicate that the delimitation hypothesis is, at best, an incomplete specification of the variables that are necessary to produce the shock-right effect. Other factors, such as the substantial delay that normally intervenes between the occurrence of the choice response and the receipt of reinforcement in the T-maze, may be important contributors to facilitation (Domber, Fowler, & Wischner, 1971). Indeed, the ability of shock to serve a discriminative function with respect to responses subsequent to the choice response may play a critical role in mediating the delay interval with discrete-trial procedures, just as it does in facilitating performance with free operant procedures.…”