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Facilitation or impairment of learning by d-amphetamine as a function of stimuli

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Abstract

Water-rewarded spatial discrimination learning was studied in rats injected with either d-amphetamine sulphate or physiological saline 15 min prior to the first of two training sessions. The effect of a light which functioned as a reward and/or as a distraction in the testing situation was examined. Amphetamine was found to facilitate learning by enhancing the reward value of light onset and also to impair learning by enhancing the distraction of light onset. The effects of amphetamine were found to interact with the duration of water deprivation preceding the first training session. Factors responsible for the controversy concerning amphetamine's influence on learning were implicated.

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Glick, S.D. Facilitation or impairment of learning by d-amphetamine as a function of stimuli. Psychopharmacologia 21, 353–360 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02419057

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02419057

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