Transfer of approach responding between punishment and frustrative nonreward sustained through continuous reinforcement

A block of continuously reinforced nonpunished trials was interpolated between acquisition of a runway response with either partial reinforcement or intermittent punishment and subsequent tests for resistance of that response to the suppressive effects of either extinction or continuous punishment. As previous investigations have shown, both the partial reinforcement effect (PRE) and the intermittent punishment effect (IPE) were sustained through the block of continuously reinforced nonpunished trials. Furthermore, the increased resistance to extinction following intermittent punishment and the increased resistance to punishment following partial reinforcement were also sustained through the interpolated continuous reinforcement. These results support a hypothesized similarity of punishment and frustrative nonreward and were interpreted in an extension of Amsel's conditioning model theory of the role of nonreinforcement in the PRE.