Fixed-ratio escape reinforcement.
Tiny moments of escape can keep problem behavior going, so watch the length of breaks you give.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team set up a fixed-ratio escape schedule. Rats had to press a bar a set number of times to turn off a mild electric shock.
They then made the shock rarer or cut the safety period to just a few seconds. The question: would the animals still work to escape?
What they found
Responding stayed high even when shocks became rare.
It also stayed high when the safe period lasted only seconds.
In short, tiny bits of relief can keep escape behavior alive, just like small bits of food keep bar pressing alive.
How this fits with other research
McMillan et al. (1967) came next from the same lab. They showed low-intensity shock can act like a traffic light, telling the rat when pressing will pay off. Together the two papers map both sides of aversive control: shock as a cue and escape as a reinforcer.
Lowe et al. (1974) swapped shock for loud noise. Rats only worked to escape the noise if it had been paired with shock before. This extends the 1963 finding: the schedule rule holds even when the aversive stimulus changes.
Meuret et al. (2001) moved the idea to children with developmental delays who screamed when they heard loud sounds. A brief break from noise reduced problem behavior. The lab principle—short escape keeps responding strong—now guides clinic treatment.
Why it matters
You now know that even a two-second break from demands can reinforce problem behavior. Check how long your client gets away when they swear or bolt. If it is even a brief moment, that may be enough to keep the behavior alive. Try giving no break (extinction) or give the break before the behavior (NCR) to loosen that grip.
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Join Free →Time how long your client gets to avoid the task after problem behavior—if it is under five seconds, plan to remove that break or give it on a time-based schedule instead.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Escape responses of squirrel monkeys were reinforced according to a fixed-ratio schedule. The reinforcement was a period of safety from a stimulus that signalled the delivery of intermittent pain-shocks. When the frequency of shock was gradually reduced, the performance remained at a high level until the shocks were quite infrequent. Similarly, the duration of the period of safety could be reduced to a few seconds with little loss of behavior. Thus, the responses appeared to be reinforced by even a brief period of safety, the actual degree of shock reduction being fairly slight. The changes in responding during this fixed-ratio escape procedure were comparable to the response changes typically obtained during fixed-ratio food procedures.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1963 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1963.6-449