PS261 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Reinforcement
Document Summary
The conditioned emotional response theory of punishment (estes and. Cs paired with shock will suppress performance of food reinforced instrumental behaviour. Punishment suppresses behaviour through the same mechanism that produces conditioned suppression however punishment procedures usually do not involve an explicit cs that signals the impending delivery of aversive stimulus. The various stimuli and individual experiences just before making punished response serves this function. These cues acquire conditioned aversive properties and will elicit freezing which is incompatible with the punished behaviour, thus the punished response will become suppressed. Regards punishment as a form of avoidance behaviour and follows the tradition of the two process theory of avoidance. Agreed that stimuli accompanying punished instrumental response acquire aversive properties and proposed organisms learn to escape from the conditioned aversive stimuli by engaging in some other behaviour that is incompatible with the punished activity. Performance of alternative activity results in suppression of punished behaviour.
