Publication
William C. Holz and Nathan H. Azrin. Discriminative Properties of Punishment. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 4(3):225–232 (1961). DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1961.4-225. [18]
Site summary — not the original abstract
Holz and Azrin studied three pigeons, pairing response-contingent shock with periods of food reinforcement or extinction; shock came to increase responding when it signaled reinforcement, whereas a low-intensity shock that had previously had little suppressive effect reduced responding after pairing with extinction. [18]
The authors used “punishment” to describe the shock procedure even when its learned signaling function increased responding; their result concerns the interaction of stimulus history and reinforcement conditions, not evidence that an aversive stimulus is harmless or an evaluated educational or dog-training method. [18]
Responses