References 389Figure 13.6 The left panel shows consumption of root beer and Tom Collins mix for one rat given a budget of 300 lever presses in baseline (square). When the
price of root beer or Tom Collins mix was changed, consumption shifted towards the now-cheaper commodity, demonstrating that the outcomes were substi-
tutable. The right panel shows results for the same rat’s choosing between food and water reinforcers. In contrast, a price manipulation had little effect on con-
sumption, demonstrating that food and water were nonsubstitutable. See text for more explanation. Source:After Rachlin et al. (1976).
Summary
As noted in the introduction to this section, Thorndike’s pio-
neering studies with cats in puzzle boxes were the first system-
atic investigation of instrumental conditioning. Research on
instrumental conditioning since then may be viewed as attempts
to understand the empirical generalization of positive reinforce-
ment that Thorndike expressed as the law of effect. The associ-
ationistic tradition (see this chapter’s section titled “Associative
Analyses of Instrumental Conditioning”) describes the content
of learning in instrumental situations in terms of associations
that develop according to similar processes as Pavlovian
conditioning. The experimental analysis of behavior (see this
chapter’s section titled “Functional Analyses of Instrumental
Conditioning”), derived from the work of B. F. Skinner, repre-
sents a more functional approach and attempts to describe the
relations between behavior and its environmental determiners,
often in quantitative terms. A third perspective is offered by
research that has emphasized the importance of the wider eco-
logical or economic context of the organism for understanding
instrumental responding (see this chapter’s section titled
“Ecological-Economic Analyses of Instrumental Condition-
ing”). These research traditions illuminate different aspects of
instrumental behavior and demonstrate the richness and contin-
ued relevance of the apparently simple contingencies first
studied by Thorndike over a century ago.
CONCLUSIONS
The study of learning and conditioning—basic information
processing—is less in the mainstream of psychology today
than it was 30–50 years ago. Yet progress continues, and
there are unanswered questions of considerable importance to
many other endeavors, including treatment of psychopathol-
ogy (particularly behavior modification), behavioral neuro-
science, and education, to name but a few. New animal
models of psychopathology are the starting points of most
new forms of therapeutic psychopharmacology. In behavioral
neuroscience, researchers are attempting to identify the
neural substrates of behavior. Surely this task demands an ac-
curate description of the behavior to be explained. Thus, the
study of basic behavior sets the agenda for much of neuro-
science. Additionally, the study of basic learning and infor-
mation processing has many messages for educators. For
example, research has repeatedly demonstrated that distractor
events, changes in context during training, and spacing of
training trials all attenuate the rate at which behavior is ini-
tially altered (e.g., see chapter by Johnson in this volume).
But these very procedures also result in improved retention
over time and better transfer to new test situations. These are
but a few of the continuing contributions stemming from the
ongoing investigation of the principles of learning and basic
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Ayres, J. J. B. (1998). Fear conditioning and avoidance. In W. T.
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