Abstract
Three groups (n = 10) of rat subjects received intraperitoneal injections of Thorazine, Elavil, and isotonic saline, respectively, prior to defensive burying testing. A defensive burying test session consisted of presenting each subject with an aversive stimulus (the discharge of a flashbulb) and recording the time each subject spent in burying behavior and the height of bedding material accumulated around the aversive stimulus during the ensuing 15 min. A retention test was conducted 24 h later. During retention sessions, subjects were simply confined to the testing chamber for 15 min. One half of the subjects in each group received retention testing under the same drug-injection condition used in the original conditioning session. The remaining subjects received retention tests under noninjection conditions. During the initial testing session, Thorazine-injected subjects spent significantly less time engaged in defensive burying and accumulated significantly less bedding material than did the saline-injected subjects. On the other hand, Elavil-injected subjects spent significantly more time burying and accumulated significantly more bedding material than did the saline-injected subjects. No significant differences, either in terms of time spent in burying or height of accumulated bedding material, were observed during retention testing.
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Tarte, R., & Oberdieck, F. Conditioned defensive burying in rats as a function of preexposure and strain. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, Missouri, 1980.
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This research was supported, in part, by a Research and Creativity grant from Emporia State University to the first author.
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Davis, S.F., Whiteside, D.A., Dickson, V.A. et al. Conditioning and retention of defensive burying as a function of Elavil and Thorazine injection. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 17, 107–110 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333681
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333681