Preference for locus of punishment in a response sequence.
Given control over timing, animals accept and even prefer brief aversive events, keeping performance intact.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pigeons pecked a key 70 times to earn food. After each peck they could also get a brief shock. The birds chose when the shock would occur in the 70-peck chain.
The setup let each pigeon pick its own punishment schedule. Some birds placed shocks early, some late, some spread them out.
What they found
Every bird showed a clear favorite spot for shock. Most birds slowed their pecking right before their chosen shock time, then sped up again.
When a bird liked early shock, its overall rate stayed high. When it liked late shock, rate dipped more. Choice, not just pain, steered behavior.
How this fits with other research
Dodd et al. (1977) later tested fixed early vs. late shocks in FR-100. They saw more suppression with early shock, seeming to clash with Dardano (1972) where birds often picked early shock yet kept pecking fast. The gap is control: F let birds choose timing; W forced it.
Dardano (1970) already showed experimenters that early shocks hurt most. Dardano (1972) adds the twist: when the bird picks early shock, the same timing feels less punishing.
Together the three papers say: early punishment suppresses most, but only when the punishee has no say.
Why it matters
Clients will tolerate aversive events if they can predict and control when they happen. Build choice into your behavior plans: let learners pick the order of hard tasks, the moment of feedback, or the slot for a brief restraint. A timed choice can keep work rate high while still delivering necessary consequences.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Food-deprived pigeons pecked a key under a schedule in which grain was made available after the seventieth peck. In each sequence of 70 responses, either the first, middle, or final response was followed by electric shock. Before the first response of each sequence, each response on a second key changed the color of the food key and the schedule of shock that was correlated with the food key color. Each pigeon preferred a schedule of shock, in that each of the three shock schedules did not occur equally often. The preferred shock schedule and the strength of the preference varied among the pigeons. The overall rate of responding by a pigeon under a given shock schedule was directly related to the pigeon's relative preference for that schedule, except when shock after the first response in the sequence was the most preferred schedule.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1972 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1972.17-261