The inverse relationship between shock intensity and shuttle-box avoidance learning in rats: A reinforcement explanation.

McAllister, Wallace R.; McAllister, Dorothy E.; Douglass, W. Keith

doi:10.1037/h0030579

Cited by 74 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…A decrease of fear of the warning signal after a long run of successive avoidance trials was confirmed with this method and, additionally, the maintenance of high level of fear of situational cues was shown. On the basis of these and some other data, McAllister and colleagues proposed that the effective reinforcement for an avoidance response is positively related to the amount of fear reduction occurring with termination of the CS, and negatively related to the amount of fear present after the response (D. E. McAllister et aI., 1976;W. R. McAllister, D. E. McAllister, & Douglass, 1971).…”

Section: +10mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibition of delay of the two-way avoidance response and warning-signal salience

Zieliński

Werka

Wilson

et al. 1995

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Effects of extended training (nine sessions, 50 trials each) on two-way avoidance response latencies were studied. For each rat, auditory and visual warning signals (CS) were presented on separate trials, either according to a Gellermann series or in 25-trial blocks. Intermittent presentation of the two kinds of trials yielded shorter latencies and higher levels of avoidance performance in response to the noise CSthan in response to the darkness CS. Presentation of trials in blocks revealed stronger response-eliciting properties of stimuli presented during the second half of the session than of those presented during the first half. A significant decrease of avoidance performance in the early portions of the delay period, an index of inhibition of delay, was obtained on auditory trials presented in the second half of the sessions. Results indicate that strong fear of the warning signal is required for inhibition of delay of avoidance responses. Two-wayavoidance training typically results in a gradual increase in the proportion ofcrossing responses performed during the warning-signal period, and a corresponding decrease in responses during subsequent aversive stimulation. At the outset of training, the rat changes compartments in response to painful stimulation. Fleeing, an innate species-specific defense reaction of rats (Bolles, 1970(Bolles, , 1971, soon becomes the dominant mode of behavior to pain and also to the events signaling painful stimulation. The data showing that escape and avoidance response latencies do not change in the course of training conducted in the shuttlebox (Bolles, Moot, & Nelson, 1976) were in agreement with such an understanding of instrumental defensive responding.A number of experiments yielded results that opposed the assertion of Bolleset al. (1976) concerning the invariance of response latencies in shuttlebox avoidance learning. Shortening of the two-way avoidance response latency was noted during a single training session (Bond, 1981;Galvani & Twitty, 1978). In Starr and Mineka's (1977) experiments, the mean avoidance response latencyThe present research was supported by a statutable grant from the State Committee for Scientific Research to the Nencki Institute. We thank W. Lawicka and 8. Zemicki for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Correspondence should be addressed to K. Zielinski, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, 3 Pasteur St., 02-093 Warsaw, Poland (e-mail: ziel@nencki.gov.pl.).-Accepted by previous editor. Vincent M. LoLordo shortened by half a second between the first three and the last three avoidances in a series of 27 consecutive nonshock trials. In the W. R. McAllister, D. E. McAllister, Dieter, and James (1979) study, significant shortening of the avoidance response latency was observed during the second session in rats trained with strong, but not with weak, shock.It seems, however, that during extended training, more complex changes in avoidance response latencies occurred. In our recent experiments on rats trained in twoway avoidance, a sh...

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Section: +10mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibition of delay of the two-way avoidance response and warning-signal salience

Zieliński

Werka

Wilson

et al. 1995

Animal Learning & Behavior

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“…The interaction between these two processes may interfere with the reliable measurement of emotional responses mediated by associative learning. For example, manipulations that reduce conditioned fear -such as anxiolytic drugs [84], decreases in contextual fear conditioning [85] and reduction in shock intensity [86] -enhance the acquisition of active avoidance responses. In fact, two-way avoidance learning represents one of the oldest theoretical debates in behavioral sciences (for an elegant review of this debate, see [87]).…”

Section: Conditioned Fear and The Interaction Between Two-way Avoidanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral evaluation of eight rat lines selected for high and low anxiety-related responses

Gomes

Hassan

Maisonnette

et al. 2013

Behavioural Brain Research

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evaluation of eight rat lines selected for high and low anxiety-related responses" (2013 • Genetic models are powerful tools to help understand anxiety disorders.• In order to determine the extent to which multiple anxiety traits generalize we compared eight genetic lines of rats selected for single high or low emotional responses.• We find many behavioral traits generalize across different animal lines selected for a single trait. a b s t r a c t Anxiety traits can be stable and permanent characteristics of an individual across time that is less susceptible of influences by a particular situation. One way to study trait anxiety in an experimental context is through the use of rat lines, selected according to contrasting phenotypes of fear and anxiety. It is not clear whether the behavioral differences between two contrasting rat lines in one given anxiety test are also present in others paradigms of state anxiety. Here, we examine the extent to which multiple anxiety traits generalize across selected animal lines originally selected for a single anxiety trait. We review the behavioral results available in the literature of eight rat genetic models of trait anxiety -namely Maudsley Reactive and Non-reactive rats, Floripa H and L rats, Tsukuba High and Low Emotional rats, High and Low Anxiety-related rats, High and Low Ultrasonic Vocalization rats, Roman High and Low Avoidance rats, Syracuse High and Low Avoidance rats, and Carioca High and Low Conditioned Freezing rats -across 11 behavioral paradigms of innate anxiety or aversive learning frequently used in the experimental setting. We observed both convergence and divergence of behavioral responses in these selected lines across the 11 paradigms. We find that predisposition for specific anxiety traits will usually be generalized to other anxiety provoking stimuli. However this generalization is not observed across all genetic models indicating some unique trait and state interactions. Genetic models of enhanced-anxiety related responses are beginning to help define how anxiety can manifest differently depending on the underlying traits and the current environmentally induced state. a r t i c l e i n f o

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“…E. McAllister, W. R. McAllister, & Dieter, 1976;W. R. McAllister, D. E. McAllister, & Douglass, 1971;Moyer & Korn, 1964;Scoles, 1982Scoles, /1983Theios, Lynch, & Lowe, 1966).…”

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confidence: 99%

Fear of the CS and of the context in two-way avoidance learning: Between- and within-subjects manipulations

Callen

1986

Animal Learning & Behavior

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The roles of es fear and of context fear in signaled two-way avoidance learning were examined in two experiments in which shock intensity was manipulated either between or within subjects. For each subject, two discrete ess, a light and a white noise, were used. For between-subjects comparisons, both ess were paired with the same shock intensity, weak or strong. Under this condition, in which fear of the ess and the context was greater with strong than with weak shock, avoidance performance varied inversely with shock intensity. For within-subjects comparisons, the light was paired with strong shock and the white noise with weak shock, or vice versa. In this case, context fear was constant during presentation of each es, and avoidance performance varied directly with shock intensity. Additionally, intertrial responding was directly related to the amount of context fear. These results support effective reinforcement theory, an extension of two-factor theory, which acknowledges the contribution to avoidance learning both of es fear and of context fear. The interchangeable effectiveness of visual and auditory stimuli as ess is discussed with regard to stimulus specificity in avoidance learning.One of the most reliable findings in the avoidancelearning literature is that in either a signaled or an unsignaled two-way avoidance task performance is better with weak than with strong shock at the levels of shock usually employed (e.g., Bauer, 1972;Cicala & Kremer, 1969;Dieter, 1977;Johnson & Church, 1965 1964;Scoles, 1982Scoles, /1983 Theios, Lynch, & Lowe, 1966). This finding poses a difficulty for many theories of avoidance learning because generally it is assumed that the greater amount of fear that is conditioned with strong shock should lead to better avoidance learning.A theory proposed in 1971 by W. R. McAllister et a1. can, however, account for the inverse relationship and can also predict how certain variables can alter this relationship. Their effective reinforcement theory (see also W. R. McAllister, D. E. McAllister, Dieter, & James, 1979) is an elaboration of Mowrer's (1947) two-factor theory of avoidance learning. The important role played by fear of the conditioned stimulus (CS) in accounting for two-way avoidance learning is acknowledged, but in addition, the contribution of the fear conditioned to the contextual cues is emphasized. When shock is received on escape trials during avoidance training, fear becomes conThe experiments reported herein were supported in part by Grant MH-36610 from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to Wallace R. McAllister and Dorothy E. McAllister, to whom the author is indebted for their valuable assistance throughout this research, and by a fellowship awarded to the author from Northern Illinois University. Requests for reprints should be sent to Edward J. Callen, Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115. ditioned to both of these sources. On avoidance trials, when shock is not received, it is assumed that the effective reinforceme...

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The inverse relationship between shock intensity and shuttle-box avoidance learning in rats: A reinforcement explanation.

Cited by 74 publications

References 22 publications

Inhibition of delay of the two-way avoidance response and warning-signal salience

Inhibition of delay of the two-way avoidance response and warning-signal salience

Behavioral evaluation of eight rat lines selected for high and low anxiety-related responses

Fear of the CS and of the context in two-way avoidance learning: Between- and within-subjects manipulations

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