Abstract
Stable leg-flexion CRs were successfully elaborated in cats receiving tone-strong shock pairings, but not in cats receiving tone-weak shock pairings. Both shock USs elicited reliable flexion URs in the presence of the CS, thus satisfying the contiguity requirement basic to the Pavlovian paradigm. Elaboration of the flexion CRs required a large number of trials relative to the conditioned freezing and decelerative heart rate responses which appeared after only a very few trials in the strong-US cats. As with flexion CRs, freezing and heart-rate responses never developed with the weak-shock US. When the weak-US cats were later switched to the strong US, freezing and heart-rate CRs quickly appeared and flexion CRs appeared after fewer strong-US trials than in cats receiving the strong shock originally. The results were interpreted as supporting a reinforcement conception of classical defense conditioning and as indicating the importance of using a US capable of eliciting emotional responses.
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This research was done while Dr. Bruner was a Carnegie Fellow at the Autonomics Division, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, English 1966–67.
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Bruner, A. Reinforcement strength in classical conditioning of leg flexion, freezing, and heart rate in cats. Conditional Reflex 4, 24–31 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03000075
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03000075