Shock as punishment in a picture-naming task with retarded children.

Two retarded children were taught to name pictures according to a standardized procedure. In Exp. I, correct responses were positively reinforced on a five to one ratio under one stimulus condition, incorrect responses were followed with a sharp "no", and the subject was ignored for inattentive behavior. Under another stimulus condition, correct responses were reinforced as in the first condition, but incorrect responses and 5-sec periods of inattentive behavior were followed by "no" and an electric shock. Less inattentive behavior was exhibited and more words were learned to a pre-set criterion in the shock condition than in the no-shock condition. In Exp. II, the ratio of inappropriate responses to shock was varied. The amount of inattentive behavior tended to increase in the shock condition, relative to that in the no-shock condition, as this ratio was increased. Two other measures of performance used in the present experiments were the ratio of errors to correct responses and the number of correct responses. Shock tended to produce better performance on these measures also.