'544 



II VNDBlKlK (il- I'HYMul ' K.X 



M I KOPHYSIOI.OGY III 



a typical output 

 duping /5 minute 

 period 



B- FIPST 



CONDITIONING 



T0IAL 



C CONDITIONED EMOTIONAL RESPONSE 

 1 EABLY STAGES 2.FULLY ESTABLISHED 



LE GEND 



CLICKER INTQODUCEO AT C, 

 TEQMINATED BY SHOCK AT S 

 AFTER 5 MINUTES. 



TIME 



in. 2. The conditioned emotional response as it appeals 

 typically in the cumulative response curve. Abscissae, time; 

 ordinate*, cumulative number of responses. [From Hunt & 

 Brady 1193).] 



men! to permit at least sonic reasonable degree of 

 stimulus control and specification. Typically, the 

 subject in such a study may be a hungry pigeon 

 pecking at a lighted spot on the wall for a small 

 amount ol grain as reinforcement; or .1 thirsty rat 

 ma\ press .1 lever to obtain a small drop of water, 

 ipi .1 monkey ma) push a panel in order to postpone .1 

 painful electric shock; or even Homo sapiens may pull 

 a plunger to acquire a candy or cigarette reward. 

 The point, ol course, is not the investigation of 

 eating, drinking or smoking behavior per se, or even 

 pil pain. Most importandy, the object of these tech- 

 niques is to place some arbitrary sample ol behavior 

 mill. 1 experimental control so that behaviorial 

 processes may be investigated as .1 function of a wide 

 variety of operations, including neurophysiological 

 manipulations and even 'emotional' disturbance 

 Estes & Skinner (116) first suggested the basis of an 

 approach to at least one aspect of the 'emotion' 

 problem within the framework of this developing 

 behavioi science, and several recent extensions ol 

 these methods to both the psychological and physio- 



logical analysis of affective processes ( ;_>, 36-41, 

 43-47. 5 1 . 53. 54. '93. '94. -">-'. 268, 269, 290, 

 3:59- 34'. 34**) justify their enthusiastic accep- 

 tance by a broad interdisciplinary audience. 

 Much of this work has had its origin in the rather 

 common clinical and experimental observation 

 that 'emotional' disturbance can, as one of several 

 possible effects, disrupt or interfere with an or- 

 ganism's ongoing behavior. Experimentally, the 

 fundamental empirical fact which has provided the 

 cornerstone for such an approach to the problem 

 ul emotion is the suppressing effect of anticipated 

 pain upon an animal s ongoing lexer pressing be- 

 havior. This conditioned suppression phenomenon is 

 readily produced by pairing some previously neutral 

 stimulus with pain shock. The typical consequences 

 of such a procedure in the rat (involving repeated 

 presentations of a clicking noise for 5 min. followed 

 by pain shock to the feet during a lexer pressing 

 session for water reward) are shown in figure 2 (193). 

 The clicking noise is introduced at point C on the 

 cumulative lever pressing curves, continues for 5 

 min. and is terminated continguously with shock at 

 point .S'. Within a few trials, the anticipatory 'emo- 

 tional' response to the clicker begins to appear as a 

 perturbation in the lexer pressing curve, accom- 

 panied by crouching, immobility and usually defe- 

 cation. 



Xow this emphasis upon a rather primitive and 

 possibly somewhat molecular psychological phe- 

 nomenon as the starting point for an experimental 

 analysis of emotional behavior has several clear-cut 

 advantages from the standpoint of a neurophysio- 

 logical analysis. First, focus directly upon this con- 

 ditioned suppression response per so eliminates a 

 major source of error attributable to variables 

 that affect the instrumental behavior from which 

 'emotional' effects are usually inferred in the more 

 conventional observational or even 'escape-avoid- 

 ance' learning approach to this problem. Secondly, 

 this simple relatively uncomplicated response is 

 clickable under .1 wide range Ol conditions and ap- 

 pears in quite consistent form or topography in all 

 animals. Thirdly, this response is remarkably stable 

 oxer time, surviving without apparent diminution 

 in the absence ol exercise or further reinforcement 

 virtually throughout the entire life span of the or- 

 ganism, Finally, and probably most importantly 

 in. in the standpoint of a relational neurophysio- 

 logical analvsis, the technique of superimposing the 

 eiiHiiiiin.il response upon a well-established stable 

 levei-pressing li.il.it makes it possible to approximate 



