Abstract
Three groups of 60 rats were given 40 trials of standard shuttle-avoidance conditioning with a tone CS and a shock intensity of.4,.8, or 1.6 mA. Within each group, four subgroups were matched on the number of avoidances during acquisition and given retention tests of 20 trials at 5 min, 1, 4, or 24 h after training. The terminal level of acquisition performance was an inverted-U-shaped function of the shock intensity, and performance during retention tests was a U-shaped function of the retention interval, with the minimum occurring at 1 h for the.8-mA shock group and at 4 h for the.4- and 1.6-mA shock groups.
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This report is based on a portion of a dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Iowa in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree. The author is indebted to Judson S. Brown for his advice and consultation throughout the course of the investigation, as well as to I. Gormezano, D.J. Levis, R. W. Schulz, and D. W. McAdam.
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Bintz, J. Effect of shock intensity on the retention of an avoidance response. Psychon Sci 22, 17–18 (1971). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335916
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335916