Intensification of punishment effects through exposure to prolonged, fixed-duration shocks: The role of shock cues as a stimulus for fear

Abstract

Three experiments tested the hypotheses that (1) the onsets of prolonged, fixed-duration treatment shocks (shock treatment, or ST) serve as cues for fear conditioning to the ongoing painful effects of these stimuli, and (2) this acquired fear transfers to and influences shock-motivated test performances in predictable ways. Experiments 1 and 2 involved spaced post- ST presentations of very brief shocks (a presumed analogue of the onsets of treatment shocks) as a means of extinguishing the fear putatively associated with shock cues. This procedure reduced defecation by ST subjects over blocks of extinction sessions and nullified the punishment intensification effect that was otherwise shown to be a consequence of ST. As a further test of the shock-cue hypothesis, Experiment 3 involved relatively massed presentations of these brief shocks prior to ST in a latent-inhibition procedure (Lubow, 1973). This brief-shock regimen also nullified the ST punishment intensification effect but did not impair the transituational transfer of contextual fear. In contrast, the group that was given the same brief shock regimen following ST showed enhancement of the punishment effect. With respect to current theoretical accounts of ST effects, these data were most consistent with notions that rely on an acquired-fear construct.