Some effects of correlation between response-contingent shock and reinforcement

Rats responded on a two-component chain schedule in which a response-contingent electric shock at the end of the first component was either positively correlated, negatively correlated, or uncorrelated with reinforcement availability in the second component. With 0.4-ma shocks, rate in the first component depended on the shock-reinforcement correlation: when shock and reinforcement availability were positively correlated, after extended exposure to the contingencies, rates exceeded those in the absence of shock; when shock and reinforcement availability were negatively correlated, responding was generally suppressed throughout. The discriminative control of shock over responding in the second component, in which reinforcement was available 50% of the time, also depended somewhat on correlation. However, rate change in the first component was not specifically related to discrimination in the second component. With 0.8-ma shocks, responding was substantially suppressed in the first component at all three values of shock-reinforcement correlations.