The course of emotionality in the development of avoidance.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To examine the interplay between instrumental and emotional behavior during the acquisition of a discriminated avoidance response, rats were trained to press a bar to avoid shock while they were concurrently engaged in pressing a plate for food. The course of emotionality was tracked by assessing the several levels of suppression of ongoing plate presses during each of the various phases of the acquisition process. The results revealed a complex relationship between the level of performance on avoidance and the several concurrent indices of emotionality. In general, the results support the dual process hypothesis that conditioned emotionality controlled by the warning signal provides motivation for the avoidance response, while a decline in emotionality (with the offset of the signal) reinforces the response. The results also suggest that the lingering motivational aftereffects of aversive stimulation play an important role in the early phases of acquisition.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: