Role of safety in the Pavlovian backward fear conditioning procedure.

Abstract

Demonstrated the effects of Pavlovian conditioning procedures in which CS follows UCS. In Exp. I with 16 mongrel dogs, tone onset occurred 1 sec. before (cessation-conditioning group) or 1 sec. after (backward-conditioning group) shock termination; presentation of CSs during Sidman avoidance responding in the shuttle box resulted in decreased rates. In Exp. II using 16 dogs, tone following shock termination by 15 sec. produced similar effects, while CS which followed shock termination by 1 sec., but was not reliably followed by a long intertrial interval (ITI), was ineffective. Although these procedures produce inhibition of fear, this result is not due to a backward associational process. It is due to the fact that, when CS follows UCS and the ITI is long, the CS signals safety. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)