Abstract
Rats, 3-11 days old, were given 25 escape training trials in a straight alley with.1,.2, or.4-mA 60-Hz ac shock as the motivating stimulus. The results indicated that the younger the rat or the more intense the shock, the less likely escape training was to be completely effective. On.1 mA, only the 7- to 11-day-old Ss showed an intrasession speed increase, and on.4 mA, only the 11-day-olds showed such an increase. The 7- to 11-day-old Ss were also the only Ss to increase speed as shock intensity increased. Response competition, on the other hand, decreased over training trials for all age groups on both.1 and.2 mA, but only the 5- and 7-day-old Ss showed such a decrease on.4 mA. For all age groups, however, response competition varied inversely with shock intensity.
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Misanin, J.R., Hardy, S., Goodyear, J. et al. Effects of shock intensity on speed and response competition in the escape training of neonatal and infant rats. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 4, 397–399 (1974). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336731
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03336731