Abstract
Four groups of hooded rats received 100 trials of avoidance training per day for 10 days in a four-way shuttlebox. The animals were assigned to experimental groups as follows: Group 1 received 25 escape trials immediately preceding avoidance training on Day 1. Group 2 were placed in the chamber on Day 1 for the equivalent time required for escape pretraining. Group 3 animals were exposed to the 25 escape trials on the day preceding the beginning of avoidance training. Group 4 received avoidance training only. All groups acquired the avoidance response to a similar level in the first two sessions. Significant group effects [F(3,20) = 14.36, p <.01] were seen, with the performance of Group 1 decreasing on Day 3 and remaining lower over the 10 days of the experiment. Thus, a delayed long-term interference effect was found when escape pretraining immediately preceded avoidance training.
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The authors are grateful to W. B. Pavlik for his suggestions in the preparation of this manuscript.
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Browning, R.T., Isaac, W. Preexposure to the UCS affects avoidance conditioning. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 27, 55–56 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329896
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329896