Abstract:
The use of punishment in treatments designed to reduce harmful behavior has largely been abandoned for ethical reasons. However, the use of positive reinforcement in behavioral treatments may fail to reduce harmful behavior to safe levels. Use of an inhibitory conditioned stimulus as an operant punishing consequence offers a new approach to punishment. The present study uses an animal model to investigate whether presentation of an inhibitory stimulus will punish the behaviour it follows. Six pigeons are used. The target behaviour is key pecks for positive reinforcement. One stimulus (S+) predicts response-contingent food deliveries on a variable interval schedule. Simultaneously, a different stimulus previously associated with extinction (S-) is presented on a variable rate schedule. Food deliveries are not withheld when the S- stimulus is presented. Early results suggest that the overall rate of key pecking for food by pigeons may be suppressed in the presence of an S- stimulus, relative to its absence. Therefore, an S- stimulus has the potential to be a punishing stimulus. More research is required to investigate which environmental variables impact the functional reliability of the inhibitory stimulus as a punisher. The present study provides a foundation for the continued investigation of punishment procedures able to suppress unwanted behaviour without raising ethical concerns.