STRESS‐INDUCED BREAKDOWN OF AN APPETITIVE DISCRIMINATION1

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Abstract
Rats trained to discriminate between SD and SΔ for food reinforcement showed marked impairments in this discrimination when strong, unavoidable shocks occurred at the termination of a third stimulus. The predominant feature of this impairment was a supernormal rate of unreinforced (SΔ) behavior. Shocks delivered without exteroceptive warning also led to a discriminative breakdown. The effect was a direct function of shock intensity. When behavior was strongly suppressed in the third stimulus by response-correlated shock (“punishment”), instead of unavoidable shock, breakdowns were only temporary; as soon as responding recovered from its overall suppression, discriminative performance returned to normal. The discriminative deterioration may be interpreted as an emotional by-product of frequent aversive stimulation, but accidental contingencies could also have played a role.

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