Abstract
Pavlovian conditioning of heart rate in the white rat was attempted using milk presentation as reinforcement, and with both trace and delay paradigms. Delay conditioning produced positive results that were statistically significant, whereas trace conditioning exhibited the same trends but did not reach statistical significance. In both cases, CR had the same direction as UCR to milk (acceleration of heart rate) and opposite to the unconditional reaction to CS. Extinction and reconditioning were both accomplished. Some indications of complex response interactions were noted in the occurrence of the cardiac CR on conditioning trials where the instrumental response to the UCS (drinking) eventually occurred, as against the absence of cardiac CR on trials where the instrumental response did not occur. The existence of such interactions was also indicated by the fact that CR on individual trials within any single session could vary in direction between acceleration and deceleration, although averages might be stable.
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Supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, research grants MH-08480 and MH-08097, and in part by the Veterans Administration.
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Schoenfeld, W.N., Matos, M.A. & Snapper, A.G. Cardiac conditioning in the white rat with food presentation as unconditional stimulus. Conditional Reflex 2, 56–67 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03034095
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03034095