ABSTRACT
This chapter defines escape conditioning and avoidance conditioning. It compares escape conditioning, avoidance conditioning, punishment, and positive reinforcement in terms of the antecedents and consequences involved in each. Escape conditioning is similar to punishment in that both involve the use of an aversive stimulus. Escape conditioning is common in everyday living. Escape conditioning has the disadvantage that the aversive stimulus must be present for the desired response to occur. The principle of avoidance conditioning states that if a behavior prevents an aversive stimulus from occurring, then that will result in an increase in the frequency of that behavior. A difference between escape and avoidance conditioning is that the latter often involves a warning stimulus, also called conditioned aversive stimulus, which is a stimulus that signals a forthcoming aversive stimulus. One possibility in discriminated avoidance conditioning is that the avoidance response is strengthened because it immediately terminates the warning stimulus.
