Maintenance and Suppression of Responding Under Concurrent Schedules of Electric-shock Presentation.

Abstract: Lever pressing behavior of squirrel monkeys (s. sciureus) was shaped through shock avoidance to facilitate maintenance of pressing when presentation of electric shock was the only consequence of responding. When presses on each of two levers was reinforced with shocks according to concurrent variable interval schedules, steady moderate rates of responding ensued. When shocks were eliminated as a consequence for responding on one lever, behavior decreased to near zero on that lever but continued on the other lever where shocks still were produced. Dissertation Discovery Company and the University of Florida are dedicated to making scholarly works more discoverable and accessible throughout the world. This dissertation, "Maintenance and Suppression of Responding Under Concurrent Schedules of Electric-shock Presentation." by Frank Michael Webbe, was obtained from the University of Florida and is being sold with permission from the author. A free digital copy of this work may also be found in the university's institutional repository, the IR@UF. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation.