Instrumental electrodermal conditioning in the monkey (Cebus albifrons): Acquisition and long-term retention

Abstract

Eight Cebus albifrons monkeys received 25 sessions of discriminative operant conditioning of the skin conductance response (SCR), with colored lights as discriminative stimuli and with Sidman avoidance (SS-40 sec, RS-40 sec) scheduled during one light and response-contingent shock during the other, Discriminative stimulus segments were separated by 30-sec periods of time-out from shocks and lights, Two extinction sessions were run 3 months after training, Almost from the beginning of conditioning, the monkeys made significantly more unelicited skin conductance responses in the avoidance periods than in punishment, The monkeys' heart rates also increased significantly, but there was no difference between avoidance and punishment, SCR frequency during extinction continued to differentiate significantly between avoidance and punishment, and there was a significant increase in this differentiation from the last conditioning session to the first extinction session, but the difference then reduced in the second session, The results indicated that monkey's SCRs are influenced by instrumental reinforcement contingencies somewhat in the same fashion as those of humans. © 1979 Psychonomic Society, Inc.