On Tue, 18 Dec 2001, Michael Sylvester wrote:

> I was amazed when a student began his answer to a question "Once upon a
> time,it was thought that autonomic responses could not come under operant
> control."

This may not be a fairy tale. Neal Miller and his associates were
unable to replicate their results and were forced to withdraw
their claim (see Dworkin & Miller, 1986).  They said:

"After more than 2,500 rats were studied, it is concluded that
the original visceral learning experiments are not replicable and
that the existence of visceral learning remains unproven".

This is a rather extraordinary statement.

What's the current status?

-Stephen

Dworkin, B., & Miller, N. (1986). Failure to replicate visceral
  learning in the acute curarized rat preparation. Behavioral
  Neuroscience, 100, 299-314.


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