ABSTRACT
A very important consideration in the development of temperamental characteristics in mammals, including humans, is the interaction of inborn and learned factors in ontogeny. One such characteristic or trait is persistence (and its opposite, desistance) or perseverance. Behaviors that are characterized as persistent, perseverative, or fixated seem to be involved in many of the common personality disorders. The significance of the work reported in this chapter is that it provides a mammalian animal model for the study of the development of these emotional predispositions. The developmental model follows approximately twenty years of investigation of similar phenomena in adults of the same species. We have moved in our work from an early interest in the frustration effect (FE), the partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE), discrimination learning, and related phenomena in adults (Amsel, 1958, 1962, 1967) to more general considerations of the role of frustrative and other disruptive factors in the invigoration, suppression, and persistence of behavor in adults (Amsel, 1972a, 1972b). Now we are involved in an examination of the learning, retention, and generality of such factors in the course of early development.
