A brief history of frustrative nonreward research: 1911-2024
1911 – E. L. Thorndike (Animal Intelligence. Hafner) proposed his S-R theory of learning with two symmetrical statements: satisfaction (appetitive reinforcement) strengthens the S-R bond, whereas discomfort (nonreinforcement or aversive reinforcement) weakens the S-R bond:
“The Law of Effect is that: of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction to the animal will, other things being equal, be more firmly connected with the situation, so that, when it recurs, they will be more likely to recur; those which are accompanied or closely followed by discomfort to the animal will, other things being equal, have their connections with that situation weakened, so that, when it recurs, they will be less likely to occur. The greater the satisfaction or discomfort, the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond” (p. 244).
1928 – Two papers demonstrated that (1) information about the incentive is encoded as part of the learned associative structure, and (2) violation of incentive expectancies triggers an emotional response. The research reported in these papers was carried out in E. C. Tolman’s laboratory:
Elliott, M. H. (1928). The effect of change of reward on the maze performance of rats. University of California Publications in Psychology, 4, 19-30.
Tinklepaugh, O. L. (1928). An experimental study of representative factors in monkeys. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 8, 197-236. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0075798
1930s – A series of articles published by C. L. Hull in the journal Psychological Review develop the notion that expectancies can be understood as fractional anticipatory goal responses. This gave rise to the rG-sG mediational mechanism. See a collection of these papers with commentaries in:
Amsel, A., & Rashotte, M. E. (1984). Mechanisms of adaptive behavior. Clark L. Hull’s theoretical papers, with commentary. Columbia University Press.
1939 – John Dollard, Neal E. Miller, Leonard W. Doob, O. H. Mowrer, and Robert R. Sears co-authored the very influential “Frustration and Aggression” (Yale University Press).
1942 – L. P. Crespi demonstrates the so-called elation and depression effects in a simple runway situation with quantitative changes in incentive magnitude. Later, these effects were referred to as successive positive contrast (SPC) and successive negative contrast (SNC).
Crespi, L. P. (1942). Quantitative variation of incentive and performance in the white rat. American Journal of Psychology, 55, 467-517. https://doi.org/10.2307/1417120
1944 – Neal Miller’s publishes his influential “Experimental studies of conflict” (in J. M. Hunt, Personality and the Behavior Disorders, pp. 431-465. Ronald Press).
1947 – O. Hobart Mowrer publishes “On the dual nature of learning: A reinterpretation of ‘conditioning’ and ‘problem solving’” (Harvard Educational Reviews, 17, 102-148), introducing two-factor learning theory.
1952 – Clark L. Hull’s last book, “A Behavior System” (Yale University Press) appears soon after his death. This book elaborates on the rG-sG theory of the early 1930s as applied to incentive contrast.
1952 – The first demonstration of the invigorating effects of surprising nonreward on dominant responses using a double-runway procedure:
Amsel, A., & Roussel, J. (1952). Motivational properties of frustration: I. Effect on a running response of the addition of frustration to the motivational complex. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43, 363-368. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0059393
1956 – Kenneth Spence publishes a book with extensive theoretical analysis of incentive contrast effects: “Behavior Theory and Conditioning” (Yale University Press).
1958 – Amsel’s first extensive theoretical statement of frustration theory.
Amsel, A. (1958). The role of frustrative nonreward in noncontinuous reward situations. Psychological Bulletin, 55, 102-119. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0043125
1960 – O. Hobart Mowrer publishes “Learning Theory and Behavior” (Wiley & Sons), an updated version of two-factor learning theory.
1960 – D. E. Berlyne’s “Conflict, Arousal, and Curiosity” (McGraw-Hill) developed a homeostatic view of motivation.
1962 – Douglas H. Lawrence and Leon Festinger published “Deterrents and Reinforcement. The Psychology of Insufficient Reward” (Tavistock). This book introduced and review the theory of cognitive dissonance based, among others, on evidence from partial reinforcement studies.
1965 – Reed Lawson published “Frustration. The Development of a Scientific Concept” (Macmillan), where he distinguished between “self-contained theories” (e.g., the frustration-aggression theory) and views “integrated with general behavior theories” (e.g., Amsel’s frustration theory).
1967 – Comparative research first suggests that successive negative contrast may not be a general vertebrate phenomenon.
Lowes, G., & Bitterman, M. R. (1967). Reward and learning in the goldfish. Science, 157, 455-457. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.157.3787.455
1969 – Robert C. Birney, Harvey Burdick, and Richard C. Teevan published “Fear of Failure” (Van Nostrand-Reinhold), a review of the extensive human literature on avoidance motivation.
1971 – Original paper on relaxation theory, an application of a theoretical framework similar to that of frustration theory to explain aversive learning.
Denny, M. R. (1971). Relaxation theory and experiments. In F. R. Brush (Ed.), Aversive conditioning and learning (pp. 235-295). Academic Press.
1971 – Jeffrey A. Gray’s book “The Psychology of Fear and Stress” (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) introduces the fear=frustration hypothesis. This book appeared in a revised version by J. A. Gray and N. McNaughton (2000) “The Neuropsychology of Anxiety. An Enquiry into the Functions of the Septo-hippocampal System” (Oxford University Press).
1974 – Helen B. Daly published her summary of research on the escape-from-frustration paradigm.a substantial part of his research program.
Daly, H. B. (1974). Reinforcing properties of escape from frustration aroused in various learning situations. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 8, 187-231. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60455-7
1975 – M. E. Bitterman publishes an extensive summary of his comparative research on learning with several species. Incentive contrast and partial reinforcement effects are a substantial part of his research program.
Bitterman, M. E. (1975). The comparative analysis of learning. Science, 188, 699-709. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.188.4189.6
1976 – First demonstration of incentive contrast in an invertebrate.
Bitterman, M. E. (1976). Incentive contrast in honey bees. Science, 192, 380-382. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1257773
1981 – Developmental origin of successive negative contrast in infant rats.
Chen, J.-S., Gross, K., & Amsel, A. (1981). Ontogeny of successive negative contrast and its dissociation from other paradoxical reward effects in preweanling rats. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 95, 146-159. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077749
1982 – A theoretical integration of Amsel’s frustration theory and the Rescorla-Wagner model is applied to an extensive series of learning phenomena.
Daly, H. B., & Daly, J. T. (1982). A mathematical model of reward and aversive nonreward: Its application to over 30 appetitive learning situations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 111, 441-480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.111.4.441
1988 – First demonstration of incentive contrast in marsupials.
Papini, M. R., Mustaca, A. E., & Bitterman, M. E. (1988). Successive negative contrast in the consummatory behavior of didelphid marsupials. Animal Learning and Behavior, 16, 53-57. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209043
1992 – Abram Amsel publishes “Frustration Theory. An Analysis of Dispositional Learning and Memory” (Cambridge University Press), a summary of four decades of research on the consequences of frustrative nonreward.
1996 – Charles F. Flaherty’s book “Incentive Relativity” (Cambridge University Press) brings the field of incentive contrast up to date, especially in relation to pharmacological studies.
1999 – H. Wayne Ludvigson published a special issue in the journal Psychological Record (Vol 49, No 3) with papers addressing the issue of odor emissions by rodents in situations involving reward, frustrative nonreward, and illness.
2002 – An evolutionary view of comparative research on contrast.
Papini, M. R. (2002). Pattern and process in the evolution of learning. Psychological Review, 109, 186-201. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.109.1.186
2003 – A distinction between allocentric learning (tracking environmental changes) and egocentric learning (learning about the organism’s own emotional reaction to changes) is made in the context of comparative research on incentive contrast.
Papini, M. R. (2003). Comparative psychology of surprising nonreward. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 62, 83-95. https://doi.org/10.1159/000072439
2004 – Parallels between social pain and physical pain in brain systems described in fMRI experiments with human subjects.
Eisenberger, N. I., & Lieberman, M. D. (2004). Why rejection hurts: A common neural alarm system for physical and social pain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 294-300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.05.010
2005 – Steve Reilly’s special issue on “Contrast, Incentive Learning, and Surprising Reward” appears in the International Journal of Comparative Psychology (Vol 18: https://escholarship.org/uc/uclapsych_ijcp/18/4).
2010 – The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative was launched by the National Institute of Mental Health. The negative valence system includes frustrative nonreward and loss as endophenotypes.
2012 – Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The neural bases of social pain: evidence for shared representations with physical pain. Psychosomatic Medicine, 74, 126–135. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e3182464dd1
2014 – Carmen Torres’ special issue on “Incentive Relativity” appears in the International Journal of Comparative Psychology (Vol 27: https://escholarship.org/uc/uclapsych_ijcp/27/4)
2015 – Papini, M. R., Fuchs, P. N., & Torres, C. (2015). Behavioral neuroscience of psychological pain. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 48, 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.11.012
2024 – The frustration research group is formed after the Society for Neuroscience meeting in 2023, in Washington DC.