Postconditioning delay and intensity of shock as factors in the measurement of acquired fear.
- 1 August 1962
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Experimental Psychology
- Vol. 64 (2), 110-116
- https://doi.org/10.1037/h0043057
Abstract
Two experiments were run on the classical conditioning of fear in rats and the measurement of its effect through the learning of another response (hurdle jumping). In Exp. I the effect of intensity of shock (30, 40, 50, 60, or 100 v.) used during conditioning was investigated. At each shock level one group was given forward conditioning (light-shock) and one backward conditioning (shock-light). For all groups, hurdle-jumping trials were given immediately after conditioning in which S could escape the light by jumping a hurdle and were continued on the next day. Evidence of learning following both forward and backward conditioning, was obtained but only on the second hurdle-jumping day. Performance generally improved following conditioning with the higher shock levels. The results of Exp. II indicated that learning does occur on the first day of hurdle jumping when a postconditioning delay of 1 day is used.This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Strength of fear as a function of the number of acquisition and extinction trials.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1954
- Studies of fear as an acquirable drive: I. Fear as motivation and fear-reduction as reinforcement in the learning of new responses.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1948