Abstract
Rats typically show very slow improvement on barpress-avoidance tasks, but they show rapid improvement on shuttle-avoidance tasks. This phenomenon can be due either to an inability of rats to learn barpress avoidance or to interference from competing responses (e.g., freezing and withdrawal) that hinder the performance of the barpress-avoidance response, but not the shuttleavoidance response. The results of the present experiment, which employed a transfer of learning design from barpress avoidance to shuttle avoidance and vice versa, support the latter hypothesis.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blanchard, R. J., & Blanchard, D. C. (1969). Crouching as an index of fear. Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology, 61, 370–375.
Bolles, R. D. (1975). Theory of motivation (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
D’Amato, m., Keller, D., & DiCara, L. (1964). Facilitation of discriminated avoidance learning by discontinuous shock. Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology, 58, 344–349.
Hurwitz, H. M. B. (1964). Method for discriminative avoidance learning. Science, 145, 1070–1071.
Kreickhaus, E. E., Miller, N. E., & Zimmerman, F. (1965). Reduction of freezing behavior and improvement of shock avoidance by damphetamine. Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology, 60, 36–40.
Mackintosh, N. J. (1983). Conditioning and associative learning. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Masterson, F. a. (1984). A theory of defense behavior: Innate responses, consumary goal stimuli, and cognitive expectancies. The Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 7, 754–756.
Masterson, F. A., & Crawford, M. (1982). The defense motivation system: A theory of avoidance behavior. The Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 5, 661–696.
Meyer, D. R., Cho, C., & Weseman, A. S. (1960). On problems of conditioning discriminated lever-press avoidance response. Psychological Review, 62, 224–228.
Rakover, S. S. (1975). Tolerance of pain as a measure of fear. Learning & Motivation, 6, 43–61.
Rakover, S. S. (1979). Fish (Tilapia aurea), as rats, learn shuttle better than lever-bumping (press) avoidance tasks: A suggestion for functionally similar universal reactions to a conditioned fear-arousing stimulus. American Journal of Psychology, 92, 489–495.
Rakover, S. S. (1980). Role of intertriai interval following an escape of avoidance response in bar-press avoidance. Learning & Motivation, 22, 220–237.
Rakover, S. S. (1984). Avoidance theory: The nature of innate responses and their interaction with acquired responses. The Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 7, 752–753.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by Haifa University’s research authority and the faculty of social science and mathematics. The writing of the article was funded by the Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI. The author is very grateful to Ted Landau, Ruth Nathan, and Larry Nathan for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rakover, S.S. Latent avoidance learning: Positive transfer from barpress to shuttle avoidance and vice versa. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 24, 286–289 (1986). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330143
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330143