SUMMARYTwo experiments are reported to test the hypothesis that individuals who are considered persistently refractory by their teachers are generally inferior in the acquisition of avoidance behaviour. Brief electric shocks were administered for errors in a task in which adolescent subjects were required to over‐compensate for the effect of the Muller‐Lyer Illusion.In each experiment, refractory individuals received significantly more shocks. Receipt of this “punishment” is associated with reduction in their errors but the effects seemed relatively shortlived. This seemed analogous to their typical response to punishments or disciplinary procedures in everyday life. The implications of these tentative findings are briefly di