The avoidance barpress problem: Effects of enhanced reinforcement and an SSDR-congruent lever

Diffusion Modelling Reveals the Decision Making Processes Underlying Negative Judgement Bias in Rats

“…This helps to minimise suffering caused to laboratory animals during experiments, which is favourable for animal welfare [ 14 ]. Practically, reward-based tasks mean that rats can be trained more quickly (22 days for most rats in this task compared to an average of > 40 days for R-P tasks; calculated from Parker et al [ 50 ]), as rats will learn to press a lever to obtain food reward within a few days, however experience much more difficulty in acquiring an active avoidance response [ 50 , 51 ]. Use of a reward-based task may also restrict the circuits involved in decision making to those regulating reward processing.…”

Reinforcement versus species-specific defense reactions as determinants of avoidance barpressing.

“…Likewise, avoidance responses appeared to be accidental results of an apparent surge in the subjects' activity level as soon as they were placed on the grid floor, or of occasional lunges toward the ceiling in the general area of the manipulandum. Several studies (e.g., Cicala, Masterson, & Kubitsky, 1971; Modaresi, 1988) have reported that rats show an increment in anticipatory running or in general activity just before the shock onset (during WS), and Fanselow and Lester (1987) have suggested that these are components of the rat's innate defensive strategy. Considering that rats in a dangerous situation such as avoidance conditioning engage in a host of innate defensive reactions (Adams, 1979; Blanchard & Blanchard, 1971; Fanselow & Lester, 1987), the predominance of nonfrontal barpress responses may indicate that nonfrontal innate defensive reactions dominated the subjects' behavioral repertoire and precluded learning the association between frontal barpressing and the escape–avoidance contingencies of reinforcement.…”