Despite the likely importance of Pavlovian conditioning in sexual behavior, previous evidence of reliable or sizeable effects is very sparse. This report includes four experiments in the conditioning of sexual arousal in the males of a mammalian species, namely, the rat. In each case the unconditioned response (UR) was unconsummated arousal after exposure to a female. There was evidence of a substantial conditioned effect, as shown by decreases in the time to complete copulation during postconditioning conditioned stimulus (CS) tests. It is also possible to establish a second-order conditioned response (CR), which retains its strength even after extinction of the first-order response. These results confirm the power of Pavlovian contingencies in sexual responding and provide implications for conditioning theory and applied work.

Although it is commonly assumed that ejaculation is the effective reinforcer for sexual behavior, there is little evidence for its role in the establishment of any Pavlovian conditioned arousal responses. This report includes three experiments (with rats) that used ejaculation as the US. In the first, a paired conditioning group was compared with a random control; in the second, conditions were varied in testing to look for conditioning to background cues; in the third, extinction trials were given in an attempt to provide a more sensitive test for any conditioned response. There was no evidence for conditioning in any of these cases, leading us to question the role of ejaculation.The belief that learning plays a major role in the control of sexual arousal seems to be almost universal in psychology. For example, Bermant and Davidson (1974, conditioned in this manner, two such groups should show an increasing divergence over trials.p. 4) said that "it is clear that the sexual behavior of some Method species, in particular nonhuman primates and man, isSubjects. This experiment used 20 male Long-Evans hooded rats, modifiable through the operation of environmental conapproximately 100 days old, with no sexual experience prior to the experimental situation. Also used were 60 ovariectomized females of the tingencies. ' , same strain. All animals were housed in individual cages in a room with Still, the evidence is remarkably weak for an assumpreversed light-dark cycles, and had free access to food and water.tion of such strength and commonality. A few studies have Apparatus. Mating trials were conducted in arena boxes 60 x 60 shown some limited effects of Pavlovian contingencies x 50 cm high. Three sides and the bottom were of plywood painted flat black; the fronts were of removable Plexiglas, and the tops were in copulatory situations (e.g., Farris, 1967). However, open. The arenas were located in a dimly lit small room.reliable evidence for any sizable CR based on sexualProcedure. The male rats were divided randomly into experimental arousal in mammalian species is not readily available.(Group E) and control (Group C) groups, each with 10 animals. SubseMost commonly it is assumed that conditioning develops quently, two males were dropped from Group C because of failure to through the pairing of situational cues with ejaculation.

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