CHOICE OF A TERMINATING OVER A NON-TERMINATING SIGNAL IN FREE-OPERANT AVOIDANCE

Rats chose between two signalled avoidance schedules. Under one schedule, responses in the presence of the signal terminated it and resulted in avoidance of shock; in the other, responses in the presence of the signal resulted in shock avoidance but signal termination was delayed for 10 sec. Pressing a second (changeover) lever produced change from one schedule to the other for 1 min. Once this 1-min period timed out, subjects could remain under the schedule in effect or could reinstate the other schedule for another 1-min period. All four subjects continuously changed over from the non-terminating to the terminating signal schedule. Changeover responding was not maintained when the termination contingency was removed. When changeover responding resulted in a change from a terminating to a non-terminating signal schedule, changeover responding did not occur.