Avoidance conditioning of activity and immobility in rats.

Abstract

Investigated the acquisition of nontopographically defined activity and immobility avoidance responses in 20 male hooded Long-Evans rats. In the active-avoid condition, any movement emitted by the S avoided electric shock. In the immobile-avoid condition, nonactivity served as the avoidance response. Yoked-control groups were run under both procedures. Although all Ss displayed activity differences from their controls in a direction predictable from the Law of Effect, the active-avoid procedure led to inferior avoidance conditioning when compared with the immobile-avoid procedure. Results support the hypothesis that an important factor determining avoidance acquisition is the unconditional effect of the aversive stimulus on behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)