Passive-avoidance learning in gerbils and rats.

1 October 1970

journal article
Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology

Vol. 73 (2) , 269-273
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030221

Abstract

Compared 20 male albino Sprague-Dawley rats and 30 male Mongolian gerbils on acquisition and retention of a 1-trial nonshock step-through passive-avoidance task. Results of Exp. I indicate that the rats learned the response in 1 trial and then showed extinction-forgetting. The gerbils, which had initially shorter step-through latencies than rats, showed no learning from Trial 1 to 2, but continued to increase latencies over all days of testing. The effect of habituation to handling on the acquisition and retention of the avoidance response was investigated in Exp. II. Habituation to handling facilitated passive-avoidance acquisition in both species and yielded trends in performance which were similar to those obtained in Exp. I. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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