Increased Resistance to Extinction Produced by Post-Reinforcement Goalbox Delay

Abstract

The purpose of the experiment was to determine whether the increased resistance to extinction shown by Ss given post-reinforcement delay might be accounted for by frustration produced by the delay. Rats trained in a double runway were given access to the second runway either immediately after reward in the first goalbox or 30 sec. after the removal of the reward. Extinction was confined to performance in the first runway. While the delay group exhibited greater resistance to extinction than the nondelay group, the differences in the running speeds of the two groups in Runway 1 and Runway 2 during training did not approach significance. Findings were discussed as supporting the competing response hypothesis and nonsupporting the frustration hypothesis.