The relative effects of nonreward and response thwarting on the frustration effect

Studies of the frustration effect (FE) have confounded the facilitative effect of frustrative nonreward on R2 performance with the possible energizing effect of response blocking in G1. To separate these two effects two groups of 11 rats were run in a double-runway to continuous reinforcement in G1 and G2, and were then shifted to partial reinforcement in G1. One group was confined in G1 on nonrewarded trials; the other group was never confined. Facilitation of R2 performance was affected jointly by frustrative nonreward and response blocking in G1.