DELAYED ESCAPE FROM LIGHT BY THE ALBINO RAT

Two albino rats were trained to terminate an aversive light for 1 min by pressing a bar. After 19 hr of conditioning they were exposed to successive delays of 1, 2, 5, and 10 sec imposed between occurrence of the escape response and light termination. No stimulus change accompanied the delay interva...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior 1966-11, Vol.9 (6), p.655-658
Main Author: Keller, John V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Avoidance Learning
Behavior, Animal
Conditioning (Psychology)
Conditioning, Operant
Light
Male
Rats
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Summary:Two albino rats were trained to terminate an aversive light for 1 min by pressing a bar. After 19 hr of conditioning they were exposed to successive delays of 1, 2, 5, and 10 sec imposed between occurrence of the escape response and light termination. No stimulus change accompanied the delay interval, and any additional responses made at this time reset the delay timer. For both rats the relative frequency of escape responses with very long latencies increased as the delay interval increased. The modal escape latency, however, remained essentially unchanged for all delay values of greater than 1 sec. "Superstitious" responding was observed during the delay interval.
ISSN:0022-5002
1938-3711
DOI:10.1901/jeab.1966.9-655