Can a shuttlebox computer analog be used to condition human avoidance behavior?
Freedman (1990) introduced a computer analog of the shuttlebox paradigm and presented results to show that this analog could be used for studying human avoidance conditioning. In the present study, a first experimental phase was conducted to test how the fact that the tone was considered aversive in the instructions and the intensity of this tone affect avoidance behavior. In a transfer-of-control test phase, it was tested as to whether the warning stimulus presented as a cue to the aversive stimulus had acquired either aversive or informative quality. An effect of instructions was observed for both levels of the auditive stimulus, and a stimulus effect was found for those groups that were given the instructions that described the tone as aversive. In the case of subjects who in the first phase achieved a certain learning criterion, it was recorded how often they in the second phase selected a condition in which the warning signal of the first phase was not presented. No transfer of co
