Pavlovian performance following unexpected reward omissions
Dudley, R. Thomas
Dudley, R. Thomas
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Date
1994
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Abstract
According to frustration theory, the unexpected omission of reward produces a facilitation of ongoing behavior. This phenomenon is known as the frustration effect (FE). Five experiments studied the FE on Pavlovian performance. Experiment 1 demonstrated that an FE due to the effects of frustration can be obtained when controlling for the amount and distribution of reinforcement, thus eliminating the influence of demotivation and generalization decrement. Experiment 2 replicated the first and showed the importance of the midtrial interval (MTI) length by demonstrating that a shift from a 10 s to an 80 s MTI eliminates the FE. In Experiment 3, an FE was obtained using a sugar solution as the omitted reward. Experiment 4 demonstrated the ability to obtain an FE when reward is shifted from 5 to 1 pellet. Experiment 5 supported a frustration interpretation of unexpected reward omission by controlling for alternative hypotheses, including demotivation and generalization decrement.
Contents
Subject
Subject(s)
Frustration
Classical conditioning
Control (Psychology)
Classical conditioning
Control (Psychology)
Research Projects
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Genre
Dissertation
Description
Format
vi, 59 leaves : illustrations
Department
Psychology