This thesis is concerned with the effects of previous ex­perience with electric shock on the acquisition of a conditioned emotional response (CER) to a signal preceding shock. Rats with prior shock experience were slow to acquire the normal CER, which is manifested by a decrease in the rate of food-motivated lever pressing. However, this slow acquisition did not seem to result from adaptation or habituation to shock, as had previously been proposed. Rather, prior experience with unsignalled shock tended in itself to inhibit the rate of lever pressing. When later presented with a warning signal preceding shock, rats with prior shock ex­perience increased their rate of responding. This "dis-inhibition" persisted for several days, after which the usual decrease in rate occurred. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1964 L58 / Master of Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 95 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-43).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The four interrelated experiments reported in this thesis were designed to study the effects of previous exposure to electric shock on the subsequent conditioning and extinction of an avoidance response in rats. The purposes of the research were twofold. The first objective was to test a conflict hypothesis concerning lengthy avoidance conditioning situations. The second purpose was to investigate the ways in which preshocks used to produce such a state of conflict affected behavior. The results indicated that preshocks have an effect on subsequent avoidance conditioning only when they are paired with stimuli which occur in the avoidance situation. Certain preshock procedures which were supposed to produce conflict did in fact retard acquisition. Furthermore, response possibilities available at the time of preshocks were found to be important determinants of subsequent behavior. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of awareness on experimentally induced anxiety. Forty college undergraduates were conditioned with a mild electric shock as the UCS (unconditioned stimulus) and a tone a s the CS (conditioned stimulus). After conditioning, the experimental group was taught to discriminate between the CS and six other tones which were both higher and lower in frequency than the CS. The control group was not given these learning trials. After learning to discriminate the tones, the experimental subjects had a higher GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) to the seven tones as compared to the control group. The discrimination process thus facilitated an association among the tones. This increase in anxiety was relatively greater with the passage of time as the experimental subjects also had a higher GSR to the seven tones 24 hours after conditioning compared with 30 minutes after conditioning. These increases, however, were not significant in all cases.

No description available.

Induced attack was studied under three conditions: (1) paired experimentally naive rats were exposed to intense electrical shock; (2) experimental subjects, previously trained to respond on a fixed vii ratio of six responses for liquid food reinforcement, were paired with target animals with the reinforcement contingency in effect; (3) experimental subjects were given a history of responding on a fixed ratio of six responses for positive reinforcement in the presence of shock, and finally this group was paired with experimentally naive targets when both the reinforcement and shock variables were present. Pairing experimental animals without shock did not cause attack, nor was bar-pressing behavior appreciably disrupted. Only when electrical shock was imposed upon pairs did attack occur. Furthermore, attack behavior severely reduced operant responding and there appeared to be no recovery of response rates over several sessions.

No description available.

Research on aversive control of behaviour has dramatically declined over the past decades. This trend is primarily a consequence of an over-reliance on shock-based procedures, which have been increasingly criticized on ethical, practical, and ecological validity grounds. The continued study of aversive regulation thus requires the development of viable alternatives. Six preliminary experiments, triggered by serendipitous observations of Betta splendens’ reactions to unintended water disturbances, allowed for (a) developing a water flows (WFs) experimental paradigm; (b) confirming the aversive function of WFs; and (c) demonstrating the feasibility of the WFs paradigm as an alternative to the use of electric shock, as it does not involve painful stimulation and carries a higher level of inherent ecological validity. Based on the relevance of free-operant avoidance phenomena (Sidman, 1953a) for the study of aversive control, the fact that these have only been demonstrated in one fish species (goldfish) using shocks, and that the only attempt to show another form of avoidance in Betta splendens produced inconclusive results (Otis & Cerf, 1963), the WFs paradigm was implemented in two experiments aimed at addressing these issues. These studies were aligned with a research program on spatiotemporal analysis of behaviour that has demonstrated, over the course of several decades, that a comprehensive understanding of behavioural processes requires an approach that includes, but is not limited to, the study of rates of discrete responses (e.g., key pecks of a pigeon). Accordingly, a more holistic interpretation of experimental data than is typical for behavioural studies was attained through a combined analysis of the frequency and temporal distribution of a target response (crossings in a shuttle-tank), patterns of swimming trajectories, instances and durations of the aversive stimulus, and the occurrence of behaviour related to different features of the experimental tank. In Experiment 1, Betta splendens exposed to a free-operant avoidance procedure reliably escaped WFs but did not develop avoidance behaviour even though escape improved with practice. Moreover, adding a warning stimulus (curtains of air bubbles - CABs) to the free-operant procedure did not produce increments in avoidance behaviour, as has been demonstrated in other species. Considering these findings, Experiment 2 maintained the same free-operant avoidance contingencies, but escape responses were now scheduled to produce the WFs (punishment and extinction of escape). The result of this manipulation was not a substantial decrease of escape, but an initial large increase of this response, followed by a progressive decrease to approximately pre-punishment levels. In addition, punishment did not result in increased avoidance responding as an alternative response. The explanations for these unexpected findings relate to the duration of the CABs; sign- and goal-tracking effects; uncontrolled stimulation produced by water pump activation/operation; unintended reinforcement (mirror reflections and delay between the pump activation and WFs reaching full strength); and the development of responses that allowed the fish to reduce their exposure to high-intensity WFs (i.e., alternative behaviour). The need for investigating the effects of adjusting the WF procedures to the ecology and biology of Betta splendens is also discussed, particularly in regard to their territoriality and predominant defensive response (immobility) in relation to the experimental apparatuses and the target response (changing compartments).