The Effect of Punishment Intensity and Stimulus Characteristics on Discrimination Escape Conditioning

Abstract

<p>Punishment intensity and stimulus characteristics were manipulated in a two-choice visual discrimination task using a combined escape-punishment procedure. Under some conditions an inverted U-shaped function was found relating punishment intensity and discrimination performance. There was some indication that optimum punishment intensity was determined by the relative salience of specific features of the discriminative stimuli, rather than simply by task difficulty as suggested by the Yerkes- Dodson .Law. In all punishment conditions it was found that discrimination performance was superior when the negative stimulus was relatively more salient or contained the only distinctive feature. The results were interpreted as indicating that discrimination in escape or escape punishment procedures develops primarily through control by the negative stimulus.</p>