Inhibitory interactions between appetitive and aversive stimuli.

Reviews the behavioral evidence that a stimulus of a given affective value will exert a central inhibitory influence on responding maintained by stimuli of the opposite affective value. The effects of aversive stimuli on appetitively motivated behavior and of appetitive stimuli on aversively motivated behavior are considered separately. The evidence for a true inhibitory action is evaluated in terms of 3 behavioral criteria: the summation, retardation, and counterconditioning tests. Special attention is paid to the role of peripheral response interactions in determining the outcome of these tests. Although aversive stimuli meet all 3 criteria as inhibitors of appetitive behavior, the evidence that appetitive stimuli inhibit aversively motivated behavior is far less consistent. The strongest evidence for the inhibitory effect of appetitive stimuli comes from studies attempting to countercondition the reinforcing properties of aversive stimuli. It is concluded that this line of research supports general motivational theories that argue for the functional equivalence of excitors and inhibitors of opposite affective value. (4? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)