Do people avoid sitting next to someone who is facially disfigured?

Most psychological research on the social effects of facial appearance has compared ‘normal’ with attractive faces whereas little work has been concerned with the possible differences in reactions to disfigured and ‘normal’ faces. Yet many cranio-facial surgeons wish to know whether their disfigured patients are reporting reality when they complain that members of the public avoid or react negatively to them. This study finds that people travelling on a suburban railway significantly avoided sitting next to someone who appeared to have a facial port-wine stain. It is concluded that facially disfigured people's accounts of avoidant behaviour towards them are probably the results of correct perceptions.     

Blocking of inhibitory conditioning within a serial conditioned stimulus-conditioned inhibitor compound: Maintenance of acquired behavior without an unconditioned stimulus

Well-trained classically conditioned stimuli, presented unreinforced, were protected from extinction when they were followed by a signal of the omission of the reinforcer (conditioned inhibitor Konorskian type) in eight cats. An aversive classical conditioning paradigm with shock as the reinforcer was used. Of several behavioral (leg flexion, vocalization) and organismic arousal (heart rate, respiration rate, respiration amplitude) measures of conditioned responses, the respiration amplitude changes were found to be most informative for the continuous assessment of elicited arousal of low and medium intensity. In all subjects conditioned stimuli presented during extinction in serial compound with the conditioned inhibitor elicited larger responses than did conditioned stimuli presented alone during extinction. The mechanism of protection from extinction in a paradigm in which the elicitor of learned behavior occurs prior to the conditioned inhibitor provides the organism with the mechanism for the maintenance of learned behavior in the absence of a reinforcer.     

An apparatus for behavioral and physiological study of aversive conditioning in cats and kittens

An apparatus for aversive conditioning of adult cats and kittens is described. Animals are held by a cloth harness and head restraint device in a metal frame with a movable treadmill floor. They are supported in a natural standing position, with freedom to flex and move each leg and to walk or run on the treadmill. Various transducers record respiration, EKG, vocalization, leg flexion, and locomotion on the treadmill.