Effect of audience on the acquisition and extinction of avoidance

Abstract

Five groups of subjects were given training in the acquisition and extinction of an avoidance response (button-press). The conditioned stimulus (CS) was a tone and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) was shock. Subjects in first group were tested alone (alone group), subjects in second group were tested while an audience waited outside subjects' room (aud-out), in another group subjects had audience facing them during acquisition (acq-aud), in fourth group subjects were trained alone during acquisition but had audience facing them during extinction (ext-aud), and the last group of subjects were tested in the presence of an audience both during acquisition and extinction (acq-ext-aud). It was found that the effect of an audience during acquisition was to inhibit acquisition and the effect during extinction was to quicken extinction of avoidance. Results are discussed in terms of drive, anxiety-reduction, and evaluation apprehension hypotheses.