Abstract
In any study of drugs, it is difficult if not impossible to ignore the fundamental pharmacologic principle that no drug has a single action. Tht, principle is important not only because it is relevant to specific experimental problems but also because it so precisely parallels a principle of overriding importance in the analysis of behavior: no stimulus has a single action. We ordinarily speak of this behavioral principle in terms of the multiple functions of stimuli, and it is illustrated in any experiment concerned with controlling relationships between stimuli and responses. For example, an experiment that deals with an elicitation relationship must be designed carefully to avoid confounding elicitation with the potential reinforcing or discriminative effects of the eliciting stimulus. The principle is also illustrated in the organization of this book, which, in speaking of the stimulus properties of drugs, separates these into discriminative and eliciting and reinforcing properties.
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© 1971 Plenum Press, New York
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Catania, A.C., Overmier, J.B. (1971). Discriminative Stimulus Functions of Drugs: Interpretations. In: Thompson, T., Pickens, R. (eds) Stimulus Properties of Drugs. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0788-5_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0788-5_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-0790-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-0788-5
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