ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that investigations of affective interactions are of general importance for understanding the functional organization of motivational and reinforcement mechanisms, a point that is especially valid in the analysis of conditioned inhibition. It follows Jerzy Konorski in considering the significance of appetitive-aversive interactions for the mechanism of conditioned inhibition at a later stage. The effect of stimuli of one affective class on responses elicited by an excitor of the opposite affective value is, however, an empirical question; the chapter asks whether an excitor or inhibitor of one hedonic value has an excitatory or inhibitory effect on the action of an excitor of the opposite affective value. The counter conditioning experiments provide good evidence for the general concept of reciprocal inhibitory interactions between central appetitive and aversive motivational systems, and it is clear that the interactions between the behavioural properties of stimuli of contrasted affective value should be viewed within the context of such a system.