Abstract
Describes 3 studies in which Ss performed a difficult position discrimination task under different levels of punishment threat. 48, 64, and 64 undergraduates, respectively, served as Ss. The punishment operation consisted of presentations of a loud, medium, or soft 2700-Hz tone following errors. In Exp. I, the medium-tone punishment produced more accurate responding than the other 2 tones the Yerkes-Dodson effect. Responses latencies were also longer under the medium tone than the other 2 tones, an unexpected finding. In Exp. II, the inverted U function of the effect of punishment level on response latency was replicated under more stringent conditions. In Exp. III, effects of punishment contengency and relative frequency of the stimulus events were examined. Noncontingent punishment produced poorer choice performance than contingent punishment, especially when the loud tone was used. Results are compared with predictions from D. L. LaBerge's (see 37:4) recruitment theory, which accounts well for the choice data, but less well for the latency data. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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