Relaxation and fear as determinants of maintained avoidance in rats.

Abstract

providing the computer program for the co variance analyses of Experiments 1 and 2. The authors especially want to thank Augustus Lumia for providing many stimulating comments and criticisms at various stages of this research. Thanks are also due to M. Ray Denny. David Linden, and J. Bruce Overmier for their criticisms of an earlier draft of this paper.2 Requests for reprints shou'd be sent to James

Avoidance learning in a black and white shuttlebox

“…It might be thought that the occurrence of ITRs in the black-white group would reflect the frightened rat's tendency to approach dark areas (e.g., Reynierse & Rizley, 1970). That is, the black-white animals might have been expected to make the preponderance of their ITRs so as to return to the black end of the shuttlebox.…”

“…There was no indication here of an overall black-going bias in either ITRs or Ras. But we may suppose that a color bias exists early in training, i.e., after the first few shocks, and that these preferences can affect behavior in situations where the Ra is rapidly acquired (Knapp, 1965;Reynierse & Rizley, 1970). And we may also suppose that the mechanisms responsible for learning in the shuttlebox are so subtle that they emerge only after the first few traumatic trials in which the rat's initial response tendencies are suppressed.…”

“…One line of evidence that tends to support Denny's (1971 ) relaxation theory of avoidance learning is the fInding of Knapp (1965) and Reynierse and Rizley (1970) that the learning of jump-out avoidance and one-way avoidance, respectively, were facilitated by making the safe part of the apparatus perceptually different from the dangerous part. If the safe region is different from the danger region, it is less likely to generalize to the shock region and compete with the a voidance response .…”

Neural Dynamics of Autistic Repetitive Behaviors and Fragile X Syndrome: Basal Ganglia Movement Gating and mGluR-Modulated Adaptively Timed Learning

“…For example, a sudden reduction of a fearful shock can cause a relief rebound. Likewise, the non-occurrence of an expected shock can cause a relief rebound ( Masterson, 1970 ; Reynierse and Rizley, 1970 ; Denny, 1971 ). The unexpected non-occurrence of food can, in contrast, cause a frustrative rebound ( Amsel, 1962 , 1992 ).…”

Nontemporal effect of ITI on discriminated one-way avoidance responding

“…Specifically, given a constant ITID, the rate of directional avoidance learning seems to vary along the gradient of stimulus Similarity between the shock compartment and the compartment used to confine the subject during ITIs. Learning is markedly improved when the latter compartment is distinctively different from the shock compartment (Reynierse & Rizley, 1970), the rate of learning being directly related to the length 0 f confinement in the distinctive ITI com partment (potts & McKown, 1969;Tenen, 1966). In these latter experiments, for example, different groups of rats were trained to avoid a footshock by jumping onto a safe and distinctive platform.…”