ABSTRACT
The essence of the drive-reduction hypothesis of reinforcement, or reward, might be sketched as follows: It is well known that turning off a strong motivational stimulus, such as an electric shock, will serve as a reward to reinforce whatever response the animal was making immediately before he escaped from the shock. This chapter considers two theories which assume that contiguity is sufficient to produce learning. Following E. R. Guthrie one might explore the possibility that central stimulation acts as a reward by producing in the stimulus situation a radical change which protects the response from retroactive inhibition. Following F. D. Sheffield et al., one might explore the possibility that the central stimulation produces some type of activation which is conditioned to the preceding responses. These hypotheses seem promising for the reward effects of central stimulation.
