Effects of Fear Conditioning on Avoidance Learning

Abstract

Rats were given 0, 8, 50, and 100 fear conditioning trials prior to shuttle-box avoidance learning. The fear conditioning trials resulted in: (a) an increased latency of escape responses during the initial avoidance training, (b) a greater variability of avoidance learning scores, and (c) a slight, but not statistically significant, improvement in avoidance learning. These results are attributed to fear being associated with the buzzer and to the establishing of favorable and incompatible responses to the grid shock.