Federation proceedings
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Federation proceedings · Aug 1975
ReviewThe role of discriminative stimuli in modulating drug action.
Behavior reinforced in the presence of a stimulus comes under the control of the stimulus. A drug can then modify that control and, therefore, modify the behavior itself. Studies over the past 2 decades have shown that the nature of the controlling (or discriminative) stimulus can govern the degree to which drugs change performance. ⋯ The presence of discriminative stimuli did not make as large a difference in performance in either of these experiments when chlorpromazine and promazine were studied. In general, work with other schedules of reinforcement supports the conclusion that behavior under stron external stimulus control is less apt to be readily affected by many drugs. Addition of the discriminative stimulus can also "improve" the behavior of pigeons that have been given enough methylmercury to increase greatly the variability of their performance.