Learned mastery in the rat

Volpicelli, Joseph R.; Ulm, Ronald R.; Altenor, Aidan; Seligman, Martin E. P.

doi:10.1016/0023-9690(83)90006-1

Cited by 32 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It must be emphasized that similar accuracy/distortion tendencies were manifested, although in the opposite direction, in depressed and in nondepressed subjects. Perhaps, as Volpicelli, Altenor, & Seligman (1983) and Mineka and Hendersen (1985) have pointed out, the effects of control experiences are bidirec-tional; that is, cognitive distortions can be brought out in depressed and in nondepressed subjects. In this way, neither group is absolutely safe from distortions in the judgment of contingency (Vazquez, 1984).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Judgment of contingency: Cognitive biases in depressed and nondepressed subjects.

Vázquez¹

1987

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this research I investigated whether the use of relevant affective outcomes influences depressed and nondepressed subjects' judgment of contingency. Similar to previous studies (Alloy & Abramson, 1979, Experiments 1 and 2), Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that when the outcome is affectively neutral (i.e., the onset of a light) depressed subjects make accurate judgments of contingency, whereas nondepressed subjects show (in noncontingent situations) a significant illusion of control. In Experiments 3 and 4 (a contingency situation and a noncontingency situation, respectively) different types of sentences (negative self-referent, negative other-referent, positive self-referent, positive other-referent) were used as outcomes. Although depressed subjects were more reluctant to show biased judgments than were the nondepressed subjects, in noncontingency situations depressed subjects made overestimated judgments of contingency when the outcomes were negative self-referent sentences. Results are discussed with regard to current cognitive theories of depression, particularly the learned helplessness model.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Judgment of contingency: Cognitive biases in depressed and nondepressed subjects.

Vázquez¹

1987

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, the ESC group was typically omitted as this was not deemed of interest. In one important exception, Volpicelli, Ulm, Altenor, and Seligman (1983) using a triadic design found that the ESC group was much superior to the zero group and the INESC group. During later inescapable shock, the ESC group which had first learned to bar press to escape shock continued to run in a shuttlebox during long duration inescapable shock.…”

Section: Operationalizing Learned Helplessnessmentioning

confidence: 96%

Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience.

Maier¹,

Seligman²

2016

Psychological Review

499

417

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Learned helplessness, the failure to escape shock induced by uncontrollable aversive events, was discovered half a century ago. Seligman and Maier (1967) theorized that animals learned that outcomes were independent of their responses—that nothing they did mattered – and that this learning undermined trying to escape. The mechanism of learned helplessness is now very well-charted biologically and the original theory got it backwards. Passivity in response to shock is not learned. It is the default, unlearned response to prolonged aversive events and it is mediated by the serotonergic activity of the dorsal raphe nucleus, which in turn inhibits escape. This passivity can be overcome by learning control, with the activity of the medial prefrontal cortex, which subserves the detection of control leading to the automatic inhibition of the dorsal raphe nucleus. So animals learn that they can control aversive events, but the passive failure to learn to escape is an unlearned reaction to prolonged aversive stimulation. In addition, alterations of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex-dorsal raphe pathway can come to subserve the expectation of control. We speculate that default passivity and the compensating detection and expectation of control may have substantial implications for how to treat depression.

show abstract

“…According to this account, subjects initially learn the positive contingency between responding and shock termination during exposure to escapable shock and develop the expectation that future events will be similarly controllable. This expectation of mastery (Volpicelli et al, 1983) proactively interferes with the learning that shock is uncontrollable during subsequent exposure to inescapable shock, thereby eliminating the cause of distress and helplessness during the final test phase.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling signal features of escape response: Effects of cessation conditioning in "learned helplessness" paradigm.

Minor

Trauner²,

Lee³

et al. 1990

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Six experiments examined the effects of signaling the termination of inescapable shock (cessation conditioning) or shock-free periods (backward conditioning) on later escape deficits in the learned helplessness paradigm, using rats (Sprague-Dawley and Bantin-Kingman). A cessation signal prevented later performance deficits when highly variable inescapable shock durations were used during pretreatment. The inclusion of short minimum intertrial intervals during pretreatment did not alter the benefits of cessation conditioning but eliminated the protection afforded by a safety signal. The beneficial effects of both cessation and backward signals were eliminated when a single stimulus signaled shock termination and a shock-free period. Finally, a combination of cessation and backward signals was found to be most effective in immunizing against the effects of subsequent unsignaled, inescapable shock on later escape performance. These data suggest that cessation conditioning may be crucial to the prophylactic action of an escape response.

show abstract

Learned mastery in the rat

Cited by 32 publications

References 26 publications

Judgment of contingency: Cognitive biases in depressed and nondepressed subjects.

Judgment of contingency: Cognitive biases in depressed and nondepressed subjects.

Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience.

Modeling signal features of escape response: Effects of cessation conditioning in "learned helplessness" paradigm.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About