Summary
Two of the main hypotheses concerning the role of emotionality (as an excitatory state) in the determination of escape/avoidance conditioning are juxtaposed, and their explanatory force tested by the use of constitutionally differentiated levels of reactivity in rats and the interaction these constitutional states may have with different drugs (assumed to affect different neural structures) and different doses of such drugs. From an analysis of these main effects and their interactions a complex set of relationships emerge which suggest that all the variables employed, with the exception of “sex”, are likely to be relevant to a consideration of those factors subserving differences in conditioning and learning.
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This experiment is part of the thesis submitted to the University of London in 1967 in partial fulfilment of the degree of Ph.D. in Psychology under the guidance of Professor H. J. Eysenck and Dr. H. C. Holland.
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Gupta, B.D., Holland, H.C. An examination of the effects of stimulant and depressant drugs on escape/avoidance conditioning in strains of rats selectively bred for emotionality/non-emotionality. Psychopharmacologia 14, 95–105 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00403682
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00403682