Drugs and punished responding. I. Rate-dependent effects under multiple schedules

Abstract

The effects of drugs were studied in pigeons whose responses were punished with electric shock during one component of a multiple fixed-interval 5-min fixed-interval 5-min schedule of food presentation. Most of the drugs analyzed for rate-dependent effects increased low rates of both punished and unpunished responding, while increasing higher rates less, or decreasing them; however, low rates of punished responding sometimes were increased more by pentobarbital, diazepam, and chlordiazepoxide than were matched rates of unpunished responding. In contrast, d-amphetamine and chlorpromazine usually increased low rates of unpunished responding more than matched rates of punished responding. These two drugs also decreased high rates of unpunished responding less than they decreased high rates of punished responding. Thus, the effects of drugs on punished responding depend on the control rate of punished responding; however, the rate-dependent effects of drugs on punished responding are not always the same as they are for unpunished responding.