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Aversive shocks are known to produce aggression when the shocks are not dependent on behavior and to suppress behavior when the shocks are arranged as a dependent punisher. These two processes were studied by presenting non‐dependent shock to monkeys at regular intervals, thereby producing biting attacks on a pneumatic tube. Immediate shock punishment was simultaneously delivered for each biting attack. The attacks were found to decrease as a function of increasing punishment intensity. These results show that aggression is eliminated by direct punishment of the aggression even when the stimulus that is used as a punisher otherwise causes the aggression.

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In Exp. 1, a high rate of responding (chain pulling) of a stimulus monkey was established as a visual positive discriminative stimulus for the operant behavior (bar pressing) of an observer monkey. The terminal performance of the observer under conditions in which a high rate of response of the stimulus monkey alternated in a variable temporal arrangement with a zero rate of response of the stimulus monkey (negative discriminative stimulus) was essentially the same as when nonbehavioral stimuli are correlated with the availability of reinforcement. By manipulating the schedule of reinforcement to change the rate of responding of the stimulus subject without changing its rate of reinforcement, Exp. 2 showed that the effective behavioral stimulus for the observer was the rate of chain pulling by the stimulus subject. A novel intermediate rate of responding by the stimulus monkey resulted in an intermediate rate (generalization) on the part of the observer during an extinction test. These experiments demonstrated that the rate of responding of one organism can function as a discriminative stimulus to control the rate of responding of another organism; and that the rate of responding is similar to other physical stimuli in terms of discrimination and generalization.

Food‐deprived pigeons responded under a 10‐min fixed‐interval schedule of food presentation. During even‐numbered minutes of the schedule, the discriminative stimuli were the same as those present when food was delivered. During odd‐numbered minutes there was either a change in keylight color or a change in overhead illumination, either for the entire duration of the odd‐numbered minutes, or for 3‐sec after each response. Responding during even‐numbered minutes showed the usual pattern of positive acceleration; responding during odd‐numbered minutes was similarly graded, but rates were much lower. The response‐rate‐increasing effects of amobarbital were inversely related to control rates of responding for both even‐ and odd‐numbered minutes. However, when the stimulus change during odd‐numbered minutes was either keylight color or a change from a darkened to a brightly illuminated chamber, increases in responding were considerably less than predicted on the basis of the effects on responding during even‐numbered minutes. When the stimulus change was from a darkened to a dimly illuminated chamber, control rates of responding changed little, but increases in responding during odd‐numbered minutes after amobarbital were considerably greater, and of the approximate order expected on the basis of control rate.

The efficacy of immediate tangible reinforcement in increasing appropriate visual attending for entire classes of deaf children was examined. The subjects were three classes (seven children each) in a residential school for the deaf. Boxes were installed on each child's desk, with lights that were flashed immediately contingent upon 10 sec of visual attending. Light flashes were backed up by M & M's, cereal bits, or tokens. In two of the classes, extinction sessions were also scheduled. For all classes, the reinforcement procedure increased visual attending by 50% or more, maintaining it at rates above 82%. Withdrawal of tangibles decreased attending back to baseline levels. The results support analysis of attending as operant behavior and demonstrate the applicability of reinforcement procedures in modifying these behaviors for young deaf children in a classroom setting.