This thesis is concerned with intensity characteristics of conditioned stimuli in acquisition of a conditioned emotional response (CER) in rats. A comparison was made of CSs which differed (between groups) with respect to amount and direction of change in white noise from a constant background stimulation level. The measure of conditioning was the degree to which the CS disrupted ongoing, food-motivated, bar-pressing activity. The major findings were (1) that rate of conditioning was a monotonic increasing function of amount of intensity change in either direction; and (2) an increase in noise intensity from background X to CS Y produced more rapid acquisition of the CER than did a decrease from background Y to CS X. (3) During pretests, a noise increase produced a small, but reliable, Increase in rate of bar-pressing, while a noise decrease produced a slight suppression. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/25174 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Hilton, Anthony |
| Contributors | Kamin, Leon, Psychology |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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