Avoidance Responses as Discriminated Operants

In response to a comment by Brown (1965) it is argued that stimuli associated with electric shock in avoidance‐learning experiments do not necessarily acquire an attribute of aversiveness but function as discriminative stimuli. The usual assumption that avoidance behaviour is not reinforced by shock omission but is acquired coincidentally through its collateral termination of a conditioned aversive state of affairs is rejected in the light of experimental evidence

Aversive Stimulus · Avoidance learning · Avoidance response · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Discriminative model · Extinction (optical mineralogy) · Function (biology) · Shock (circulatory) · Artificial Intelligence · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Child and Animal Learning Development · Cultural Differences and Values · Neuroscience · Psychology