Abstract
Abstract Four experiments investigated the maintenance of aversive control of behaviour by the administration of unreinforced exposure to a punishment situation. Unreinforced exposure, under appropriate conditions, was shown to strengthen resistance to extinction of passive avoidance responding in cats, dogs and rats. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated the effect under two different schedules of administration of exposure to cats. Experiment 3 explored the phenomenon in dogs. Animals receiving unreinforced exposure showed significantly more response suppression than either controls or a group receiving low shock following intense shock. Experiment 4 investigated exposure time effects on the maintenance of passive avoidance responding in rats. The critical nature of the brevity of exposure was shown. It is suggested that unreinforced exposure, under the conditions used, promotes further conditioning of fear to the cues in the situation via second-order conditioning.
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