Abstract
Four groups of rats were conditioned to avoid shock in a two-way shuttlebox. During acquisition, each response both precluded a brief programmed shock and produced a 1-sec feedback signal. CS termination was not permitted during either acquisition or extinction. During extinction, response-produced or yoked feedback was combined with either 100% response-independent shock or no-shock conditions. Greatest resistance to extinction of avoidance behavior was obtained when response-produced feedback occurred in the absence of shock relative to any other combination of these events. These results, when compared to those of previous studies investigating the role of warning signal termination in combination with the presence or absence of shock in extinction (Hartley, 1968), clearly reveal a functional similarity between feedback and CS termination.
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This study was a portion of a thesis submitted by the second author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in psychology at Florida Atlantic University.
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Scheuer, C., Schonfeld, L.I. The effect of response-contingent feedback stimuli under two types of avoidance extinction conditions. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 13, 383–386 (1979). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336902
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336902