Abstract
Rats were trained while under the influence of nicotine on a Sidman avoidance schedule. When saline was substituted for nicotine the animals which had been trained on an unsignalled schedule showed poor avoidance and took significantly more shocks than their saline-trained partners. When the schedule included either a warning signal preceding each shock or a feedback signal following each response this dependence did not develop. It is suggested that dependence on nicotine is related to the stressfulness of the situation and that the behavioural disruption found in its absence is due to an accentuation of the normal warmup process and not to dissociation of learning.
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Morrison, C.F. Effects of nicotine and its withdrawal on the performance of rats on signalled and unsignalled avoidance schedules. Psychopharmacologia 38, 25–35 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421284
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421284