Prior Shock Trauma and Test-Shock Intensity as Determinants of Escape Learning

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Abstract
The effects of prior traumatic shock (PS), administered under conditions designed either to maximize (Group 1) or to minimize (Group 2) transfer of trauma-produced learned responses from the treatment to the test chamber, were evaluated in the rat using a hurdle-jump escape situation. Another group (the control group) was not traumatized. 10 days following treatment each group was divided into three subgroups of 0.0-ma., 0.1-ma., and 0.4-ma. test shock, respectively. The performance of the control groups fluctuated systematically with variations in test-shock level while Groups 1 and 2 responded maximally to test shock regardless of intensity. However, under no-test-shock the control group and Group 2 performed identically and significantly more slowly than Group 1. Changes in group variability were similarly related to PS treatment.

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