Summary
This experiment investigated the possibility that chlordiazepoxide (CDP) has unique properties that account for state dependent learning, and prevention of conflict-induced behavior fixations.
One group of rats were given a discrimination problem on a Lashley jumping stand, but on even days all responses were punished. Another group were treated the same way except than on even days all responses were rewarded. Each of these groups were subdivided, half of the Ss were given CDP on even days, the other half no drug. The results showed that punishment on even days for the response to be learned disrupted learning more than reward for responses that were to be avoided. CDP practically eliminated these disruptive effects and aided learning for the punishment group, but led to a slower rate of learning for the reward group. These findings confirmed the hypothesis that CDP attenuates the effects of negative incentives, and that this property accounts for the drug's cue value in discrimination learning and for its fixation prevention characteristics.
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This experiment was supported by Research Grant MH-01061, United States Public Health Service. Chlordiazepoxide was generously supplied by HoffmannLaRoche Inc., Nutley, New Jersey. The animals were run by Pieper Toyama and Nancy F. Feldman. The statistical analysis was done by Dennison Smith. Nancy F. Feldman also composed and drew the figures.
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Feldman, R.S. The mechanism of fixation prevention and “Dissociation” learning with chlordiazepoxide. Psychopharmacologia 12, 384–399 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401344
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401344