Abstract
Four experiments test the hypothesis that escape learning in response to shock will transfer to a similar food-reinforced response and affect resistance to appetitive extinction. In the first two experiments, subjects were given escape training in a straight alley followed by continuous food reinforcement and then extinction. Prior escape training resulted in greater resistance to extinction of the food-reinforced response as compared to several control procedures. In the third experiment, the escape response was manipulated to be compatible or incompatible with the subsequent food-reinforced response. Greater resistance to extinction was shown when the two responses were compatible. The fourth experiment confirmed and extended this finding. The relationship of the present results to Amsel’s theory of persistence was discussed.
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Mellgren, R.L., Haddad, N., Dyck, D.G. et al. Transfer of escape conditioning to extinction of a food-reinforced response. Animal Learning & Behavior 4, 247–256 (1976). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214044
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214044