Abstract
The performance of gerbils, hooded rats, and albino rats was compared under signaled and unsignaled free-operant leverpress avoidance. Within-groups comparisons revealed that asymptotic shock rates did not differ for either domestic rat strain between signaled and unsignaled conditions; gerbils received significantly fewer shocks when the signal was present. Between-groups comparisons showed that gerbils received fewer shocks than either rat strain under the signaled condition and fewer shocks than the hooded rats under the unsignaled condition. All groups had substantially lower response rates when the signal was present. In addition, all groups made many more responses, proportionally, during the period preceding shock when the signal was present than when it was absent. An explanation of these findings is proposed that emphasizes differences in selective processes that operate upon wild stocks in comparison to domesticated species.
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A version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, Missouri, November 1976. The authors thank Mary M. Matzen and Doris N. Auer for their assistance in preparing the manuscript.
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Powell, R.W., Curley, M.D. & Palm, L.J. A comparison of signaled vs. unsignaled free-operant avoidance in Mongolian gerbils and domesticated rats. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 12, 415–418 (1978). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329724
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329724