Free-operant avoidance was studied as a function of parametric manipulation of several likely variables in a factorial study. The implications of the present findings for recent studies using free-operant avoidance as a dependent variable are discussed. Sidman's (1953) free-operant avoidance procedure had been intensively studied for approximately a 12-year period . Various manipulations had been attempted to examine the methodological soundness and theoretical importance of that procedure_ More recently, studies challenging the legitimacy of the procedure as a distinct learning type have lessened, and the procedure continues to be used as a tool in various experimental contexts (i.e _, Capobianco, MacDougall, & Foster, 1977;Gaebelein & Howard, 1979;Mason & Fibiger, 1979;McCord, Hamlin, Pool, & Milner, 1979;Savaki & Lewis, 1977;Young & Black, 1979). It is not clear from a survey of the literature whether sufficient control in free-operant avoidance exists in the simple parametric sense aside from issues relating to the theoretical Significance of such behavior_This experiment was performed to delineate the effects of three salient factors on free-operant avoidance: shock intensity, the use of a warning stimulus, and the preshaping of subjects to a barpress escape response. METHOD SUbjectsTwenty-four experimentally naive l2O-day-old Wistar rats, maintained at their free-feeding weights, were used in this experiment. ApparatusTwo single-bar stations (Grason-Stadler Model E31256-100) were housed in sound-attenuating animal chests (Grason-Stadler ModelllOl) with a BRS/LVE audio generator AU-902/112.(l5 providing white masking noise and a (340-cps) warning tone of 90 dB. Shock was delivered from a BRS/LVE shock generator (Model SG-903) and shock scrambler (Model SC-922) through floor grids. ProcedureAll subjects were trained in free-operant avoidance (Sidman, 1953) in which the shock-shock interval was 5 sec and the response-shock interval was 20 sec. Responses in the presence of The authors thank G. A. Heighington for his expert technical assistance. This work was supported by a grant from the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada to G. B. Biederman.Copyright 1982 Psychonomic SOciety, Inc. 105shock did not terminate the shock. Each subject was tested for 12 2-h sessions, and total responses and shocks per session were recorded. Cumulative records of each session were maintained. Subjects were tested under three conditions. Half the subjects were trained under a shock intensity of 1.2 rnA (high shock), and half the subjects served under a shock intensity of .8 rnA. A 2 by 2 by 2 factorial design was used, with shock intensity, warning stimulus (tone vs. no stimulus), and preshaping of barpress response vs. no shaping as factors. The shaping procedure consisted of training escape from shock by reinforcing successive approximations to the operant when necessary prior to the session. Shaping terminated when 10 barpresses were emitted_ RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONStatistical assessment of the dependent variables o...
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