The effects of predictability and controllability in appetitive situation upon subsequent disk-pull escape learning in rats

Abstract

The present experiment examined whether or not predictability over food acquisition eliminated the impairment of subsequent escape performance which otherwise resulted from loss of control over food acquisition. For the predictable/controllable (P/C) and the yoked predictable/uncontrollable (P/UC) groups, given a required response by the P/C rats during pretreatment, a 1.5-s tone was followed by food, For the unpredictable /controllable (UP/C) and the yoked unpredictable/uncontrollable (UP/UC) groups, the tone was randomly presented during pretreatment. Results of the number of failures on the disk-pull shock-escape test indicated that the P/UC group showed the same superior performance as the P/C, UP/ C, and naive control groups, which differed significantly from the UP/UC group. This modulating effect of a predictive signal is hypothesized to be due to an overshadowing of predictability upon uncontrollability.

Associative learning in animals: A selective review of recent topics and contribution of Japanese researchers1

“…As in other countries, learned helplessness effect is more popular than the irrelevance effects among Japanese researchers. A series of rat studies have been conducted by psychologists of Sophia University (Okayasu, 1987, 1989; Sonoda, 1990, 1996; Sonoda, Okayasu, & Hirai, 1991; Sonoda & Hirai, 1992, 1993a, 1993b; Sonoda, Hirai, & Okayasu, 1992). They have successfully demonstrated learned helplessness in cross‐outcome transfer designs.…”